Diving for Dollars

In a Bosnian city torn apart by ethnic clashes, a rebuilt bridge is a symbol of reconciliation and a springboard for daring men to earn a living, one seventy-foot drop at a time.

Photos by Ashley Devick

He stands alone at the edge of the Old Bridge, at its center, where the stone arches up like the spine of cat. He is one smooth, straight, skinny line. Then he raises his arms. It is the wingspan of a man whose job isn’t to fly, but to fall.

He jumps. It looks more like a pull forward, as if tugged off his perch by an invisible hand. His birdlike shadow slips past the arch of the bridge. Gravity takes over and he hurtles down. About halfway into his descent — a second, if that — he comes back to life. In one unbroken motion he curls into a cannonball and lengthens out, drilling downward, feet-first.

He meets the water with a splash you can feel.

*   *   *

The water knots itself into circles in the space where the man disappeared. Anyone who saw the man go now stares down at his wake. It’s a beat, then another, but it’s a beat too long, that second straining like breath squeezed from a lung. The water ruptures again. This time, a head pops up.

The jumper, Ermin Sarić,…