Viaducts and underpasses

I'm about ready to give up a fight that I have nearly every week here in The Herald-Dispatch newsroom.

A story in today's newspaper talks about a man seen in a viaduct. After every heavy rain, we have stories about the viaducts flooding. New editors and reporters get excited when the police scanner tells of a tractor-trailer caught in a viaduct.

According to my dictionary, the viaduct is the part that goes over the underpass. In Huntington, the railroad tracks are on the viaducts and cars and passengers travel throough the underpasses. When the viaducts flood, we're all in trouble.

So the language barbarians who insist on using "viaduct" and "underpass" interchangably win.

For now. I'll get cranky enough some day and renew the fight.

But I'm not letting up on people who use "towboat," "tugboat" and "barge" interchangably.