Wilson Bridge Opening Tonight at 11:30

[bobco85]

I learned about this earlier today and wanted to pass it on: the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is going to be opening at 11:30 tonight. If you don’t know, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge which carries I-495 a.k.a. the Beltway is actually a DRAWBRIDGE!

Source of information was the Alexandria Police Department: https://twitter.com/AlexandriaVAPD/status/854314809587892224

I won’t be going tonight to see it (I saw it open last November), but I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it open. Shipyard Park in Old Town Alexandria is a good spot to watch it https://goo.gl/maps/48MGr6Y29Wu

Topic

[LhasaCM]

@mstone 158740 wrote:

How do landlocked cities manage without their construction barges?

The landlocked cities are where the cheaper labor is and things are actually made and not brought in…

Slightly more seriously – trains (usually there are more routes/options to avoid tunnels away from the coasts).

[LhasaCM]

@peterw_diy 158739 wrote:

Another observation: the money added to include the drawbridge on WWB would have paid for all the work needed now for Memorial Bridge.

Very true. So does a single F-22 Raptor. Or (by some estimates) the security for the inauguration. Or the 2012 film Battleship.

[mstone]

@Crickey7 158738 wrote:

You might want the ability to bring naval ships close in for disaster relief, like as happened after the Indian Ocean tsunami.

I’m not convinced that parking the hospital ship a half mile further down the potomac is really a significant difference in comparison to a rescue operation that covered hundreds if not thousands of square miles. It’s not as though there are suitable port facilities in either location. If the man was really concerned about disaster resiliency he’d reallocate funds from the bridge to adding redundancy to regional medical facilities rather than banking on a dunkirk operation. In the event, I suspect it would be far more practical to use one of the many airports to shuttle in people & material. (And anything significant enough to make all of the airports unusable would likely render the potomac unnavigable and break the drawbridge anyway.)

Obviously, none of this is meant to question the value of a naval response for a costal area or archipelago suffering from a tsunami…only for a marginally navigable inland city on a minor river suffering something that didn’t come from the deep ocean.

[mstone]

@LhasaCM 158744 wrote:

The landlocked cities are where the cheaper labor is and things are actually made and not brought in…

Slightly more seriously – trains (usually there are more routes/options to avoid tunnels away from the coasts).

Uh huh. Honestly, I think we can safely just write off using parts that are too heavy for a highway, too big for a railroad, and happen to be critical to construction on the landfill and/or parks on the banks of the potomac and anacostia.

[dkel]

This thread makes me feel better about wanting to talk about bikes all the time.

[Raymo853]

I remember a news article stating the Wilson bridge is opened for a ship every two days on average.

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[LhasaCM]

@Raymo853 158771 wrote:

I remember a news article stating the Wilson bridge is opened for a ship every two days on average.

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That was with the old bridge (20 feet lower) and before the Washington Post stopped having newsprint arrive on barges. It is much less often now.

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[peterw_diy]

@LhasaCM 158773 wrote:

That was with the old bridge (20 feet lower) and before the Washington Post stopped having newsprint arrive on barges. It is much less often now.

And back when they used their Alexandria riverfront warehouse, before convincing the city to increase their development rights so they could sell the warehouse parcel to a hotel company?

[peterw_diy]

@dkel 158768 wrote:

This thread makes me feel better about wanting to talk about bikes all the time.

I’m sure rockford is thrilled if all you’re doing is talking. Do you have a build project lined up for this summer yet?

[dkel]

@peterw_diy 158781 wrote:

I’m sure rockford is thrilled if all you’re doing is talking. Do you have a build project lined up for this summer yet?

Ha! I just broached the topic with her this evening. I’ll also be starting a new thread on the subject—probably tomorrow.

[Author]

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