New San Francisco Bay Bridge nears completion
New San Francisco Bay Bridge nears completion.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
New San Francisco Bay Bridge nears completion.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Nice bridge, Bob! The shame of it is this new ‘American’ icon was manufactured with Chinese labor. Sure the assembly was American, but how many thousands of Americans could have been employed if we just used American companies to make the parts? Let’s hope they didn’t use counterfeit bolts and sub-standard steel.
Sure its cheaper to outsource; you may have read this week how Disney got busted for sweatshop labor making their toys, and everyone knows of Apple’s sweatshops. It’s probably the same or worse for their steelworkers, and of course there are no labor/safety/wage/pollution laws to make the ‘China price’ fair and competitive with American workers.
This is why our economy, so hollowed out by outsourcing, has such great troubles recovering: the skilled jobs aren’t there like they used to be. Recoveries don’t come from hiring more people to sell Chinese junk to each other, you gotta MAKE stuff, THAT produces national wealth and that is the point the Chinese learned from our incredible success in the 20th century. Result; their economy is prospering while ours slides towards second-rate status.
This is the revealing quote the article didn’t think to expand upon: “On Sunday, the four final pieces of the span’s 28-piece deck arrived from Shanghai.”
I agree that it seems odd that Caltrans couldn’t find an American company to make the deck sections, but government contracts are let to the lowest bidder. It wold be instructive to find out if American companies are allowed to bid on Chinese government contracts.
It’s true that to add value to raw material you have to make something useful out of it. But the Western world decided long ago that making things was dirty and smelly and just generally icky. And if hurts the environment. Far better to ship all that undesirable industry across the world where it can pollute someone else’s environment. Out of sight, out of mind; but we still need the products. .
The Wikipedia entry on the biridge notes that the bridge has been under construction since 2002, and if it meets the projected openening date in 2013, it will be six years behind schedule. The construction time of the original Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge combined was seven years.