Taking a different route

To the editor:One rainy night in a coffee shop in Knoxville I was chatting with a contractor whose business was repairing bridges along Interstate 70. He told me that many of the long beams that support bridges have developed long horizontal cracks the entire length of the girder. The contractor used massive jacks to squeeze the beams together and welded them in place. I recalled the Biblical traveler who decided to go home another way.

PETER HILTY, Cape Girardeau