Well this is a hell of a thing. It’s local news, but it’s one of those big hit to a major city items of local news. A bridge that connects West Seattle to Seattle has turned out to be cracking, and it’s closed at best until 2022 and at worst forever. A major chunk of the city that has been sprouting high rises like crazy over the past decade or so is suddenly cut off from the rest of the city. It’s a bit like Hurricane Sandy…a reminder that big cities are far from invulnerable.

The key points: The high-rise West Seattle Bridge, closed for safety concerns 23 days ago, may not be fixable – SDOT “does not yet know” if it is feasible “technically or financially.” If they can fix it, it might last another 10 years, but that still means replacement would be needed a lot sooner than the original 75-year projection. Even if it’s fixable, it won’t be back in use any sooner than 2022.

Some bridges are just one of many. New York has several between Manhattan and Brooklyn/Queens, London has many across the Thames, Paris has many across the Seine. This isn’t that. It’s the only way to get from there to here. It doesn’t just cross a river, it also climbs a steep hill, so there’s only the one.

It’s kind of beautiful, at least from a distance. We can see it from here on top of this hill. I find it slightly nerve-racking to drive, but the views are spectacular.

It’s just, like the pandemic, another one of those “oh this life we’ve been living isn’t actually normal or eternal, it depends on all kinds of systems and situations that can break or end” reminders.