million dollar bridge

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/6933283p-6832200c.html
Ignoring a national outcry over Alaska's ambitious plans for building "bridges to nowhere," Gov. Frank Murkowski flew to Cordova last week and cut the ribbon on a $19 million bridge project for a road leading into a dead-end thicket of alders.


The historic Million Dollar Bridge across the Copper River resumed carrying traffic this summer after a year-long rebuilding job. Traffic is expected to remain light for the near future, local officials say -- mainly the occasional hiker or river rafter. But a Cordova man is building a small lodge north of the bridge, so traffic may increase, they say.

State and local officials say there were important reasons nevertheless for rebuilding the picturesque steel bridge, which was completed in 1910 for a now-defunct railroad. The bridge was badly damaged by the 1964 earthquake and a 1995 flood. Engineers said its steel girders were in danger of collapsing into the icy brown swirls of the Copper River.