A Bridge to the Past...


70% of all bridges are ready to fall down.

And the inspectors don't have a clue.

And now they tell us about it.

this makes for added confidence among the American people and tells the terrorists more than they need to know.

Where I live, we have a four mile bridge that takes us over the Chesapeake.

Every year, four thousand people are too frightened or intimidated by the bridge and have to have others drive them across....

Then there's the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel that I use to go to Richmond and points south.

It is twenty miles long and it has two tunnels on the bridge that go under the Chesapeake....

Tunnels and bridge never bothered me after my dad and I got stuck in the Holland Tunnel with our old Junk Box and had to be towed out. While we were waiting and breathing fumes, while a persistent leak dripped onto our old windshield convincing me that the entire Hudson was about to flood in on my dad's old jalopy.

Nor is there anything like the Outerbridge crossing bridge or the Goethals where another coat of paint would cause a collision....

These are old bridges and much in need of maintenance and perhaps a companion bridge to handle the traffic that has turned the New Jersey--New York commute into a nightmare for most.

I had a friend who would never travel in a tunnel.

You can imagine how difficult it was for her to get around the City....

I remember, too, when the engineeers report came to light, and everyone in New York was warned that the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges needed a lot of work. That was bothersome since I used to take the subway to work that went over the Manhattan bridge always wondering why it shook so...
but ole' man Koch came through and the City survived....

Case in point, the Terrorists under the blind prophet tried to destroy the old Brooklyn Bridge but they realized how foolhardy that was since the cables were thicker than my wrist and the stanchions and supports thicker than a man...

And I suppose life goes on....with a dash more anxiety and a smidgen more of disbelief at the ineptitude of our great planners. No wonder the Iraqis don't trust or believe in anything we say.

Les Aaron