After visiting 27 states and dozens of pork-barrel earmarks from Vermont to San Diego and Florida to Wyoming, the Ending Earmarks Express has now visited the granddaddy of all pork-barrel earmarks... the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Ketchikan, Alaska.
As you'll see in the accompanying video we shot on the ferry between Ketchikan and tiny Gravina Island in a remote section of southeastern Alaska, there's really no need to spend $223 million federal taxpayer dollars on a bridge longer than the Golden Gate and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge.
Quite a few Ketchikan officials -- from the Mayor to members of the city council to local Chamber of Commerce officials -- crashed our Ending Earmarks Express event, and while we may never agree about whether taxpayers across America should pay for an extremely costly bridge in a remote corner of Alaska, they listened to what we had to say and proved to be gracious hosts.