Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Bridge Of The Gods Over The Columbia River Was No Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Bridge

Continuing on with our popular series of blogging about feats of bridge engineering that took less than four years to build.

What we are looking at here is known as the Bridge of the Gods.

You would have seen this bridge if you saw the Reese Witherspoon movie, "Wild" depicting Cheryl Strayed's epic Pacific Crest Trail hike.

The Bridge of the Gods is where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington. This was the location of the end of Ms. Strayed's "Wild" hike from California north.

In 1920 the U.S. War Department issued the Interstate Construction Corporation a construction permit to build the Bridge of the Gods.

However, apparently a local congresswoman's unqualified son was hired to direct the project.

By 1925 the Interstate Construction Corporation had only managed to build one pier. An entity called Wauna Toll Bridge Company then took over the project and had the new bridge open for traffic in October of 1926.

I wonder if the Wauna Bridge Company is available to take over construction of America's Biggest Boondoggle's three little simple bridges being built over dry land with a four year construction time span?

The Bridge of the Gods was not built over dry land. It was built over water, currently, on average, 108 feet deep.

In 1938 the water under the Bridge of the Gods began to rise due to the completion of Bonneville Dam. That same year Congress voted to fund the raising of the Bridge of the Gods 44 feet, along with increasing the length of the bridge from 1,131 feet to 1,856 feet. This was completed in 1940.

How can a complex feat of bridge engineering take place over the mighty Columbia in such a short time span while in Fort Worth it takes four years to build three little simple bridges, with no obstacles to make construction difficult?

I have opined previously my aggravation over the fact that J.D. Granger, his mama and Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price, have each propagandized the ridiculous lie that Fort Worth's little bridges are being built over dry land in order to save money by making construction easier.

Why is this a lie?

Because there will be no water under those little bridges until a ditch is dug under them and the Trinity River is diverted into the ditch.

The bridges are being built over dry land because this never voted for by the public, public works project, is underfunded, unlike the Bridge of the Gods, and pretty much any other public works project in America which actually works.

How come the Star-Telegram does not send one of its Pulitzer Prize winning reporters to ask a few questions of J.D. Granger?

Questions like...

Will you explain why you claim these bridges are being built over dry land, prior to the digging of the ditch, to save money, when there will be no water in the ditch until the Trinity is diverted into it?

Can you explain why it will take four years to build these three little bridges over dry land, when there have been bridges built all over the world over treacherous bodies of water with construction times of less than four years?

When will the digging of the ditch begin?

Won't the bridges already being in place present a construction difficulty when the ditch is dug under them?

Four years from now, if the three bridges are completed by then, when can we expect to see water flowing under these bridges?

What is the construction timeline of the ditch that goes under the bridges?

And then when Mr. Granger tells the Star-Telegram reporter he does not know when the ditch will be dug and how long it will take to dig it I hope the reporter asks...

How can you not know? You've been the director of America's Biggest Boondoggle for well near a decade. How can you not have a project timeline for this project?

America's Biggest Boondoggle is very perplexing, and even more perplexing is the fact that, apparently, most of the voters who vote in the area of America's Biggest Boondoggle either don't know what a mis-managed mess it is.

Or don't care.

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