Hi, Ed-

You wrote, "The bridge is not the issue but what it represents."

As a person who uses this bridge (270,000 vehicles cross it every day), I can assure you that the bridge is indeed an issue.

This is a public project. It is financed by the taxpayers of California with some help from the U.S. government. All aspects of the project were put out to bid. You have to take into account the timing of the procurement of the steel, which was in the middle of the building boom. Steel was in high demand and the cost for domestic steel was prohibitive; the project would not have gone forward at all if domestic steel had been a requirement. Building a bridge of this magnitude employs hundreds if not thousands of skilled blue-collar workers in high-paying jobs. Would you prefer that *no* jobs in the US be generated?