A few weeks ago in this space, we warned that rather than lifting all Bay State boats, Boston’s rising economic tide – relatively speaking – threatened to drown smaller, neighboring municipalities.

The very qualities that make Boston so attractive for growth and investment, we argued, also make it exceedingly difficult for the rest of the commonwealth to compete.

What we didn’t say, but certainly implied, is that Massachusetts is in need of a metaphorical bridge linking its bustling capital – and all its cultural, political and economic wealth – to the rest of the commonwealth.

Well, it’s funny how our call for a metaphorical bridge may have just been answered in the form of an actual steel and concrete bridge.

According to recent reports, the Kraft Group – owners of the New England Patriots and an enormous swath of undeveloped land along Route 1 in Foxborough – is seeking an $8 million MassWorks Infrastructure Grant to build a pedestrian footbridge over Route 1. When the bridge was first proposed a few years ago, Kraft family patriarch Robert Kraft was roundly criticized for seeking public monies apparently for his own enrichment – the bridge would link Gillette Stadium with acres of Kraft-owned parking on the other side of Route 1.

Critics contended that if Kraft wanted the bridge so badly, he could and should pay for it himself, and leave almost-empty municipal, state and federal coffers alone. Of course, those critics ignored the fact that Gillette Stadium and its attendant Patriot Place retail development have long served as a model for how to privately finance such massive sporting infrastructure.

But what was lost in the fight then – plans for a huge business park north of the stadium – has become supremely important now.

The Kraft’s “have been eyeing plans for the last few years to lure a corporate headquarters or big biotech complex to an as-yet undeveloped site along Route 1,” Banker & Tradesman Columnist Scott Van Voorhis wrote in March. “At up to 1.6 million square feet, it would be big enough to accommodate a corporate headquarters or a major research complex.”

Kraft Group officials have said privately that several large corporate tenants are intrigued by the idea of being in such close proximity to the restaurants and shops the stadium complex has to offer. And they may be even more intrigued if their employees could actually frequent those establishments without having to risk life and limb crossing busy Route 1. Hence the importance of the bridge proposal.

At this point, if $8 million buys the town of Foxborough and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts one more selling point when trying to convince a large corporate tenant to expand in or relocate to Massachusetts, we say the price is well worth it.

And the price becomes even more reasonable when remembering we would be luring said company to some destination other than Boston.

In our earlier column, we lamented the plight of areas like Fall River and New Bedford, struggling with high unemployment and fighting a losing battle with Boston/Cambridge to lure lucrative biotech and life sciences operations to their cities.

Well, as luck would have it, Foxborough is very conveniently situated right between Boston and the Fall River/New Bedford area, in the heart of the Boston-Providence corridor. It’s no stretch to conclude that a large life sciences development in the middle of this critical corridor might in turn help spur development at its ends.

Massachusetts needs more bridges linking its disparate cities and towns, not more walls isolating them from one another. Helping to facilitate this development with an $8 million infrastructure grant, in this sense, seems like a no-brainer to us. We can think of no other way to spend so little and receive such large returns.

Yes, it may end up enriching the Krafts. But it also may end up enriching and enlivening an area too long left shivering in the shadow of the commonwealth’s largest city.