If the switches are the right switches, and the wiring is as described for the situation, consider that the switch that must be jumped is bad. Wiring the wires direct to each switch terminal position with wire nuts with the switch out, then powering it to see if the circuit works from the other switch or not, would tell if the wires had a problem while being pulled. As none of the wires attached to the switch should be a ground (unless there is an indicator light,) there should be no sparks.