The Golden Hillsides of Ben Bridge is a titanic, safe nation, ruled by Kaiser Diamond with an even hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, strictly enforced bedtime, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cheerful, devout population of 21.758 billion Bridgeans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The medium-sized, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Environment, Education, and Social Policy. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Diamond City. The average income tax rate is 54.9%.

The frighteningly efficient Ben Bridgean economy, worth a remarkable 3,470 trillion Gold Coins a year, is quite specialized and mostly made up of the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Information Technology, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 159,486 Gold Coins, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.1 times as much as the poorest.

Passengers often cause a stink on public transport, there is a growing belief that consciousness is a simulated illusion within a computer-generated reality, if a tree falls in the forest there is no sound except a cash register ringing, and grumpy old house owners demand that pedestrians get off their footpaths. Crime is totally unknown. Ben Bridge's national animal is the Sapphire Dragon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Goldism.

Ben Bridge is ranked 13,861^st in the world and 34^th in Carcassonne for Smartest Citizens, with 81.59 quips per hour.