Comment by nikkwong

Comment by nikkwong 8 hours ago

7 replies

It's hilariously depressing to imagine how impossible it would be to build something like that in the US. It's not only the fact that it's an engineering feat—it's also the fact that it was built in such a human-centric way. The cafe at the top, the light show with the water. These things are all superfluous, but make these projects exciting and add novelty which makes these areas just fun places to be. The U.S., in it's current form, could never build any infrastructure projects in such a human-centric way, because, well, we apparently have an inability to build anything at all.

Seriously, when's the last time we built something like this. The only initiative I can even think of is California high speed rail and that project just so happens to be a testament to the absolute antithesis of what I'm proclaiming.

gusgus01 7 hours ago

The two longest floating bridges in the world are in Seattle, Washington. The longest, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, has a mixed use lane for cycling and walking and supposedly took 5 years to construct after construction started (ignoring that it replaced a bridge that existed there and also planning took longer, I'm not sure how to compare that). Seattle also has the world's only floating bridge that has rail on it, Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, which is also the world's 5th longest floating bridge. While not the same exact sort of feat of engineering, it's pretty cool.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bri... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bri... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_M._Hadley_Memorial_Bri...

  • titanomachy 6 hours ago

    > Evergreen Point Floating Bridge

    > Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge

    I’ve biked and driven across these bridges many times and I’m quite certain I’ve never heard these names until this moment.

    • gmueckl 5 hours ago

      Nobody in the Seattle area uses those names. They are always just the I-90 bridge or 520 bridge among the people I talk to, although both roads actually use multiple bridges to span Lake Washington.

dceddia 8 hours ago

And it’s amazing that this got built in only 3 years! I can’t imagine anything this substantial being built that fast in the US. I can’t think of any examples either but I’d be happy to see some that anyone knows of.

bravetraveler 8 hours ago

Going to need a business case that translates to value, sorry. Common sentiment, apparently, is that our postal service must generate profit. Clown show.