Is America Getting Brittle?
Aug 2nd, 2007 by lisa
I just read a very interesting essay on Popular Mechanics website.
The fact is that Americans have been squandering the infrastructure legacy bequeathed to us by earlier generations. Like the spoiled offspring of well-off parents, we behave as though we have no idea what is required to sustain the quality of our daily lives. … Many of the great public works projects of the 20th century—dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts, and even the Eisenhower interstate highway system—are at or beyond their designed life span.
It’s something to think about. It certainly makes me nervous whenever we cross a bridge or enter a tunnel while driving around here. Many people are calling yesterday’s disaster in Minneapolis a ‘wake-up call’. If it is, I’d like to think someone is listening. I don’t know that I believe it, but I hope I’m wrong.
