A Bridge to Economic Health; Region Would Suffer With Even Temporary Loss of Wilson Span
The Washington area's high-stepping economy could conceivably be tripped up in a variety of ways -- a stock market slide, a new Persian Gulf crisis, Asia's financial flu.</br></br>That one could do it, if evidence of dangerous deterioration in the 36-year-old I-95 drawbridge between Alexandria and Prince George's County forces engineers to close it to truck traffic before a replacement has been built. More than a conduit for commuters and interstate 18-wheelers, the Wilson Bridge is a critical link between the region's primary storehouses -- the warehouse and shipping complexes around Springfield and Landover.</br></br>As House and Senate members struggle over whether to fund a new bridge in the mammoth national transportation bill they are drafting, it's worth a look at the consequences of life in a temporarily Wilson-less world.</br></br>The first shock would be impassable commuting gridlock, said David Keever, a consultant on the new Wilson Bridge project.</br></br>On the opposite side of the city, the American Legion Memorial Bridge over the Potomac between Montgomery and Fairfax counties would look like a heart attack victim if many of the 175,000 cars and trucks that now use the Wilson Bridge daily go the other way around the Beltway instead. (The American Legion bridge already sags with more than 200,000 vehicle crossings daily.)