Not even skin deep |

Traffic in the DC area sucks. No, I am not telling you something you haven’t read in the papers. Our area is having a race to determine whose traffic is worse- and we’ve been neck and neck with the LA area. That should tell you plenty.

What it doesn’t tell you is why. The Arlington Memorial Bridge fiasco is the perfect exemplar. If you looked at the bridge from the Lincoln Memorial, you would mesmerized by the wonderful statues at its end. If you examined the bridge (which began construction in 1926) from Arlington House (the name Robert E Lee provided his home on lands that were appropriated by US Government as a national cemetary), you would also be affected by its beauty.

From the River to the Bridge — From the river to the bridge

But, as is often true of many things, this beauty is not even skin deep. Because the underside of the bridge is rotten clear through.

And, despite the chicanery (that’s a lie, for those of you who don’t understand that I am trying to be politically correct) of our governmental officials, any sentient being knows this problem was significant for years. After all, they constructed wooden walkways over the center of the bridge for years to ensure bicyclists and pedestrians would not find themselves drowning in the Potomac River, when the bridge collapsed.

It turns out the steel support beams are totally corroded, as you can see above. And, the concrete bridge deck surface is seriously deteriorated. (Here’s another fact- the bridge hasn’t been opened or closed since I was a tyke. Maybe we should just make it a permanent structure and not make believe it may open for river traffic- since it won’t.)

Instead of a major reconstruction, our governments (I use plural since there are multiple Federal agencies and probably the DC government involved) are going to effect 9 months of emergency repairs. (Yes, they claim this was an emergency they didn’t see coming!) Keeping two of the six lanes closed. Outlawing bus traffic. (Hurrah! I think that concept is something long overdue. We actually should outlaw all tourist buses in DC during rush hours, so traffic won’t be impeded as these buses stop anywhere and everywhere to “show off” the DC sites. Tourist buses should only be allowed on the streets during non-rush hours.)

Arnold Map of DC — The Original DC Map- Notice “Alexandria County” on the south side of the Potomac. That is no longer Alexandria, DC

So much for a bridge (Arlington Memorial) that was designed to unite the North and South. (The Virginia portion of DC- Alexandria, DC – composed both of the city of Alexandria and what was then called Alexandria County- before it changed its name to Arlington when the bridge was being considered – has been part of Virginia since before the Civil War.)

The problem is that this is not a unique situation. We have more than 60,000 bridges that emulate that nursery rhyme we all learned (“London Bridge is Falling Down”)- with 14 of that number alone just in DC.

The next fiasco? The H Street Bridge [not over water] by the railroad station has exposed rebar- clearly visible in the underdeck. Yet, this bridge still permits a slew of buses to traverse it. When this bridge collapses, you can say goodbye to Amtrak travel on the East Coast (DC is the center of the East Coast rail lines), plus the commuter lines- Metro and MARC.

Congress parties nightly off lobbyist patronage while our bridges and roads collapse. And, we make fun of Nero- who fiddled while Rome burned?