Two miles from Jaksonville on route to the nearby city of Pignon, a river crosses over the road.This road became impassable even for trucks with 4 wheel drive.This discouraged commerce and any construction trucks from passing the area, hampering efforts of building anything significant in the area.In December of 2007, Gabriel started building a bridge to safely connect both sides of the road.The students of St. Margarat’s school in Bel Air, Maryland saved up one million pennies and donated this to Gaby.Taking half of this amount, he helped to fund a good portion of this bridge project.Hence comes the name “PennyBridge.”Overall, the bridge cost $15,000 USD, not including a local resident donating several tons of gravel to fill the middle of the bridge up to the existing roadway.
On August 3rd, 2008, the first car travelled across the bridge.It now helps residents safely make it to town, and more importantly, construction vehicles can travel to Matabonite without getting stuck.This also is a big help for the vocational school in Jaksonville.The residents see this bridge as a huge success in the community.
