
The point of the allegory is rather to show the futile laborious efforts of man to make a way for himself across the "great gulf," while all the time there is the way ready for him if only he would take it. And here perhaps I should mention that the contrast typified by the two sides of the chasm is not, of course, the contrast between this life and the life after death, but of the material world and the Kingdom of Heaven: and particularly of the materialism and commercialism of the present day with the peace and beauty of the spiritual life.
The Bridge is of the same colour as the rocks of the gulf, as though it had been hewn out of them. With the regard to the details, I might perhaps point out that the tree in the left foreground has leaves and flowers on the side turned towards the Promised land, but on the other side has only dead branches: that the figure next to the right of the tree is trying to plumb the depths of the chasm with a tape measure.