In 1989 an enormous 6.9 earthquake hit San Francisco and damaged the SF Bay Bridge, causing a section to pancake onto the lower structure. It was an older bridge built in 1936 by American craftsman engineers of a lost era. Bids soon went out to find a replacement. Estimates at the time were 2.6 billion for the project and it was felt it could be completed sometime in the mid-1990’s.
Delays, starts, stops, restarts and hundreds of millions of dollars in re-evaluations along with years of political combat committee discussions, the bridge isn’t scheduled to be finished until sometime in 2013. The cost overruns now exceed 2 ½ times the original estimate and will cost hopefully only $6.3 billion. Who’s getting the money, yup CHINA?
Through the bidding process it became evident that America no longer had the facilities to build and replace this bridge. China and Japan now have superior production capabilities with China now the major steel producer and consumer of over 40% of the cement in the world, a major component of the bridge.
Has anyone noticed that California is not only hurting financially but also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, yet they let China and Japan build their broken bridge? California’s early pioneers must be rolling over in their graves. Their former industrial infrastructure should be embarrassed to be overtaken by so many other countries. As Americans we should be ashamed to have elected politicians that have let this happen.
In our new world of progressive social justice, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to further read that one other provision about this bridge put forth by the San Francisco Board of supervisors was to rename the new portion of the bridge in honor and after the self-proclaimed “Imperial Majesty Josua A. Norton, Emperor of these the United States and Protector of Mexico”. According to Wikipedia: “Though he was considered insane, or at least highly eccentric, the citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence and his proclamations, most famously, his “order” that the United States congress be dissolved by force.” He died in 1880. It took some effort but that idea was finally rejected.
Weren’t we the country that put a man on the moon from scratch in less than a decade using three wooden sticks as a calculator? Now we can’t even build a damn bridge! It seems every week there is a new pathetic announcement of what we can no longer accomplish in this once great nation.
This week in the news we watched the lights being dimed on NASA and now find ourselves paying Russians $62 million dollars to send our astronauts to our space station. President Obama and the DNC and GOP are in heated discussions over a $14.4 trillion dollar debt and then this week we hear that unemployment hits a new high this year of 9.2%. I won’t address the myriad of problems facing California. I guess it’s no wonder we are in this condition with these kinds of decisions being made by our political representatives.
However, in China today there were fireworks and celebrations as the final structures of the new SF Bay Bridge were completed and slated for overseas transport to America. The old Neil Diamond song “We’re Coming to America” is giving me a whole new feeling in the pit of my stomach.
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