Dear Wheeling Area Residents:
Decision time is coming so we better get to work with developing the one idea that will allow the Wheeling Suspension Bridge to be re-opened to vehicular traffic.
Here’s the trick, though. Our grand idea also must work toward preserving the 174-year-old span that was designed and constructed – TWICE – without combustion engines in mind (let alone motorcoach buses with uncaring tour drivers at the wheel). AND our idea has to be far better than what was in place for years – a 2-ton weight limit along with the suggestion of spacing between cars and trucks that both were enforced by the honor system – and much more effective than the five suggested solutions sent to Charleston by Mayor Glenn Elliott back in October 2019.
The mayor’s ideas? Tolling, weigh stations, soft-restraint bars, illegal enforcement cameras, and limitations to cars and spacing regulations. Byrd White, then West Virginia’s secretary of transportation, rejected each of the suggestions and that’s all the public has heard since. Now, with the $18 million beautification and structural renovation project a little more than halfway complete, we’d better do better than the last-term, lame-duck mayor if we ever wish for that convenience to return to reality.
But is it even possible? Is there really some make-sense enforcement method that would allow for continued selfish abuse of the generational bridge while, at the same time, somehow ensuring the suspension structure won’t plummet and descend to the bottom of the Ohio River?
Or, folks, has the time finally arrived for the original “Gateway to the West” to be officially retired and forever admired for its role in the development of the rest of the United States? Especially with that disgusting rat-trap motel finally coming down to the ground in favor of a new welcome center, a demolition that will, for the first time in any of our lifetimes, expose to the public the northeast corner of Wheeling’s very own national landmark?
As you can tell, the deck is stacked against our insisted-upon convenience, so our remedy must be cats-meow-miraculous.
And go …
Sincerely,
The Countdown Club
P.S. By the way, no, the funds would not be removed for the continued maintenance of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge if the state decides to keep it closed to vehicular traffic, according to state officials.
