If the medieval legends are to be believed, the devil was a prolific architect. All around Europe are bridges known as the Devil's Bridge, each with a story of soul-selling deals and outwitting satan. [...]Deal with the Devil: Story goes that the the ravine was too steep for mortal architecture, so the devil offered the traditional deal which was to take the soul of the first to cross. It ended up being an overly excited dog.
[ Spoiler alert: more dogs go to hell. ]
Come to the Atlas Obscura lecture series at DNA tomorrow!
Satan just isn't too bright, seemingly.
Fool him once with the ol' soul switcheroo, shame on you. Fool him twice, shame on him. Could have been worse I suppose, he could have built all those bridges and been fobbed off with the sole of a shoe, or a sole and chips.
I am reminded of the barge bit from Stephenson's Zodiac:
According to some theologies, animals don't have souls, so the Devil would have got the soul of the first person to cross anyway. Which would explain why there's so many of these bridges: once the first story got around, everybody thought they'd try getting a free bridge off the Devil.