Silver Bridge, part 3

One thing many of my coworkers put up with is my fondness for bridges. The things have fascinated me for decades, and whenever I have the chance, I write about them.

A few years ago, I was talking with a West Virginia bridge engineer and he mentioned something in passing about how the cables on the East End bridge vibrated at times. It wasn't something that endangered the bridge, but it could cause serious maintenance problems someday. So I did a piece about how engineers had to deal with this problem in cable stay bridges. As part of that, I got to climb to the top of the bridge and see the world from up there. My advice, if you have any touch of fear of heights, think twice if you're ever invited. Then accept, but be careful once you're up there. The view is wonderful.

It's hard sitting here, watching other people do straight news stories on the events of nearly 40 years ago. I'll be writing several opinion pieces leading up to the anniversary. And I'll probably type in a couple of stories I did 20 years ago for that anniversary. They were pretty good, in my humble opinion. (And humble it is. I have worked very hard to be humble, and I am very proud of my humility. In fact, I'm probably the most humble person I know, and I don't care who knows it.).

So be prepared for a few more Silver Bridge pieces. It's something that has weighed on my mind for months, and it's about to come pouring out now.

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If the Silver Bridge collapsed today, the 24-hour cable news channels would be all over it. There would be satellite trucks at both ends of the bridge and news helicopters flying everywhere. The national media would parachute in and tell us what this all means, when even the people who know most about bridges wouldn't know what it all means -- not yet, at least. Talk radio would blame the disaster on Bill Clinton (probably) or George W. Bush (less likely).

Before long, people would complain about the intrusiveness of the news media. They would complain about how rude the media people are.

Someone would install a Webcam on a nearby building in Point Pleasant so the world could tune in and see what was happening in the recovery efforts in real time. Bloggers would dissect every word that is reported and every document that is generated in hopes of catching someone in an inaccuracy or an outright lie.

West Virginia would put up a Web page to pass along information as soon as it became official. Crisis counselors would be called in to help students in nearby schools cope with the tragedy.

There would be fund drives set up to provide money to families of the victims. There would be concerts to raise more money. And the personal injury lawyers would have a field day.

Politicians and "activists" would feel obliged to comment, even if they had no idea what they were talking about. Newspaper editorials would demand thorough investigations. Congress would have its own investigations. Some nut case would develop a theory that someone high in government sabotaged the bridge to further his own evil plan. Said nut case would develop a Web site and gain instant credibility among people who don't trust the government.

We would have too many public opinion polls to count. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being not at all and 5 being very safe, do you feel safe driving over the bridges in your area? What do you think caused the collapse: poor design, poor construction methods, poor maintenance, heavy traffic, don't know.

The magazines at the checkout line would look for heroes and for people with tragic tales to tell.
We would be inundated with more information than we could absorb. Locals would know what is true and what is not, but they would be ignored.

Utimately, the name "Silver Bridge" would carry a brand identity, the way "Sago" does.

Would any of this be better than the way the news was covered in 1967? You tell me.