It's Gone!!

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the vice of my 50 mile commute, has been mostly blown to smithereens.

It happened, well, late. As most things that involve the drawbridge do (like me getting to work). Commuters came from far and wide to get a good view of the dreaded WWB booming into traffic oblivion. It was they who caused the delay, ignoring the barriers to get the best spot.

This crossing is so notorious, the WWB Project even held a contest: the one with the worst WWB story got to push the button on behalf of hundreds of us who equally loathe the back-up causing drawspan. The winner was definitely worthy. A gent who had been commuting hundreds of miles for 28 years. His story was a no contest. He had been involved in an accident on the bridge with an 18-wheeler. They managed to get him out of his vehicle and into an ambulance with a crushed hip. The ambulance started to go, to carry him into Virginia, make a u-turn, and cross the bridge again to bring him to Prince Georges Shock/Trauma center. But they didn't make it very far, the dingbat in the operation booth opened the drawspan! He said on the radio this morning that it was an honor to push that button. And it was an honor for him to do it for me.

Now, you can't take out a major piece of road and expect people to get to work. They are building a new bridge, right next to the old one. One half of it is already complete, and we've been driving on it for a few months now. The new WWB does seem to be better. It's higher up, making the need to open the drawspan significantly less frequent. When the whole thing is done, both directions will have 6 lanes and 2 breakdown shoulders, this is much improved from the 3 lanes an no shoulders of the previous bridge.

Thanks Dan, for blowing that horrid piece of architecture to bits. Thanks WWB Project for building us a better bridge (we all hope). You can follow their progress at http://www.wilsonbridge.com/

Here's to blowing stuff up!