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Want to know how much everyone in Wheeling missed the Washington Ave. Bridge? The city put on a party on the bridge and hundreds of people showed up.
Throngs enjoyed live music, inflatables and face painting for the kids and food truck lining brand spanking new span, which replaced the deteriorating structure that could no longer hold ambulances or school buses. But both are ready to roll across that bridge now.
There's the popular saying that you don't know what you have until it's gone. Wheeling went without the Washington Ave. Bridge for 10 months, and drivers felt the brunt. If they didn't realize how important it was to get cars around the city before, they definitely realized it while the bridge was closed.
"The Washington Avenue Bridge is a major artery here in the city of Wheeling. It helps people to commute to work, get on I-70, go to Wheeling Hospital, and its closure has affected not only Ward Four and Ward Five, but our city as a whole," said Wheeling City Councilman Jerry Sklavounakis.
It especially affected businesses along Washington Ave., as motorists couldn't get to them from National Road without taking a scenic route on Interstate 70. A new bridge should lead to a sigh of relief, and hopefully a boost in those businesses' bottom lines.
It may not seem like much, having to take the exits in Elm Grove or near Perkins to get to the Dimmeydale area, but anyone who has had to fight with the traffic around the coffee shops in Woodsdale know how much an open Washington Avenue Bridge would have meant to alleviating some frustrating traffic issues.
Those days are gone, though. That artery that connects National Road with the neighborhood around WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital is open again, with some added benefits. Now school buses and ambulances can travel across that bridge. For years, their weight was too much to bear. That will be very helpful to the hospital, as it can cut travel time for ambulances to the emergency room.
"Fire trucks, ambulances, tractor trailers, it's now a complete access way," Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder said. "This is a tremendously important connection for the hospital, but even just for the residents here."
An open Washington Ave. Bridge makes for a better Wheeling as a whole. The party for that reopening is over. Now that bridge can get to work helping all of us get to work.