Hard Luck Engineering

Amtrak doesn't apparently need Friday the 13th for bad luck, but as if the threatened elimination of federal subsidies and the incapacitate of its Acela trains weren't bad enough, its service on the Northeast Corridor was severely disrupted by a fire on a railroad bridge last night over the Hackensack River in New Jersey. New Jersey Transit trains were also affected, scuttling direct service into midtown Manhattan and requiring the bi-state PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) commuter line to add more trains between Newark and New York City.  

Speaking of New York City, another blow to the already sullied reputation of American engineering was sustained when a retaining wall between the Henry Hudson Parkway along the Hudson River and West 181st Street - near the George Washington Bridge - collapsed yesterday. To the best of my knowledge, no one was injured. Meanwhile, the hideously designed Freedom Tower, the proposed centerpiece of a new, rebuilt World Trade Center, has to be redesigned to meet security concerns. As if New York isn't already dealing with enough adversity, now it's having trouble building new structures and maintaining existing ones . . ..