IMAGINATION 401IMAGINATION DOES THE IMPOSSIBLE
At the east end of the great Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, an old
man operates a cobbler shop. When the engineers began driving stakes
and marking the foundation place for that great steel structure, this
man shook his head and said, ((It can)t be done!))
Now he looks out from his dingy little shoe-repair shop, shakes
his head, and asks himsel£ ((How did they do it?))
He saw the bridge grow before his very eyes and still he lacks the
Imagination to analyze what he saw. The engineer who planned the
bridge saw it as a reality long before a single shovel of dirt had been
removed for the foundation stones. The bridge became a reality in his
Imagination because he had trained that Imagination to weave new
combinations out of old ideas.
In one of the cities on the coast of California, all the land that was
suitable for building lots had been developed and put into use. On one
side of the city there were some steep hills that could not be used for
building purposes, and on the other side the land was unsuitable for
buildings because it was so low that the backwater covered it once a day.
And then an imaginative newcomer arrived in town. People of
Imagination usually have keen minds, and this man was no exception.
The first day of his arrival he saw the possibilities for making money
from real estate. He secured an option on those hills that were unsuit-
able for use because of their steepness. He also secured an option on
the ground that was unsuitable for use because of the backwater that
covered it daily. He secured these options at a very low price because
the land was supposed to be without substantial value.
With a few tons of explosives he turned those steep hills into loose
dirt. With the aid of a few tractors and some road scrapers he leveled
the ground and turned it into beautiful building lots. With the aid of
a few mules and carts he dumped the surplus dirt on the low ground,
raised it above the water level, and turned that into building lots too.
He made a substantial fortune,jor what?