This true story took place in the 1930s in the United States.
John Griffith was a bridge operator who controlled a railroad drawbridge across the Mississippi River. One day, he took his little son, Greg, to work. Around noon, John lifted the bridge to let ships pass below. Suddenly, he heard the whistle of a train — the Memphis Express — carrying hundreds of passengers, racing toward the bridge.
To his horror, he saw that his son had fallen into the massive gears of the bridge mechanism. If he pulled the lever to lower the bridge, his son would be crushed — but if he didn’t, hundreds would die.
In that agonizing moment, John made the heart-wrenching choice to pull the lever. The bridge closed, the train passed safely — but his son died.
Later, as he saw passengers waving happily from the train, unaware of what had just happened, John wept:
“I gave my son to save them… and they don’t even know.”