Bridge Over Boulder Dam Nearing Completion

After being awed by Yosemite, Esther Hanner drove alongside a man-made wonder in the making just outside Boulder City.

“We were on our way back to Nashville and we came around one of those hairpin turns at Hoover Dam and looked up and saw just those columns they had up at that time,” she recalls. “It’s amazing and good to know that people can still get together to build something incredible like that bridge.”

Ever since that June day in 2007, she has been following the progress of the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge from afar — via the Internet almost exclusively. She has been surprised and disappointed that she has seen so little national news coverage about it.

“The nation needs to know about this,” she says.

For a region that prides itself on its self-promotion and neon “Look at this!” attitude, there has been little capitalization so far on the bridge that provokes some form of “Look at that!” from just about everyone who sees it.

The Federal Highway Administration expects contractors to complete construction by Nov. 1. The span will divert all traffic off the dam, bring long-haul truckers over Black Canyon for the first time in almost a decade and should reduce travel times for tourists — unless those tourists want to stop to marvel at the bridge.

Tourism experts figure a lot of them will, and tour guides say it has the potential to be half of a one-two combination that’s a guaranteed knockout. It’s right next to one of the seven wonders of the industrial world, after all.

To read more and see pictures from the Las Vegas Sun, click the link below.


http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/apr/14/bridge-part-journey-and-part-destination/