In the Military there is a long standing tradition that you do not march soldiers over a bridge in step. When marching and approaching a bridge the command of Route Step, MARCH is given. This command keeps the soldiers marching in formation, but every soldier is allowed to march at her/his own step. Although this is widely practiced in the Army, I found very few who knew the reason why.

What could have possibly prompted this tradition?

I think that in the early days of the military--when the tradition most likely began--bridges were not strong enough to support the pressure of every soldier pounding his/her foot down at the same time, and the odds of each soldiers' personal pace of marching being that of the others is extremely unlikely. Even though bridges today are stronger, tradition IS tradition.

Posted by Stephen Ticsay on 2005-04-16 14:49:45