History Repeats Itself in California Infrastructure Debate

Seeing common ground between the arguments raised against the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge eight decades ago - "We need more details, the details we do have can't be trusted, and there are better alternatives" - and efforts to derail high-profile projects such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and California's proposed high-speed rail, King observes that "little has changed in terms of the attacks that are aimed at major alterations to the landscape..."

"If there's a moral to the story of the birth of the Golden Gate Bridge, it's that there are times when change within a city, region or state comes at an exponential scale. On such occasions, the cultural status quo is threatened."

"This doesn't mean that skeptics of big plans are small-minded. Some large projects should not be built. But the what-ifs and worst-case scenarios can blind us to the fact that projects of a certain scale often reshape the landscape in ways we can't imagine. And sometimes, the landscape is the better as a result."