Fairbanks and The Valley

Just two miles south of the center of the city, the Tanana River forms a water barrier that so far has limited urban growth just as effectively as an ocean. What would happen if we could magically, at no expense, install a Cushman Street bridge across the Tanana? Would we want to?

The land across the Tanana is low and wet. Still, there are many locations on the north side of the river where the low land has been filled in to form roads and building foundations. Is the problem significantly worse across the river?

In one sense, we in Fairbanks are already using that area across the river. Many times one can-look southward across the valley and see the city's ice fog or haze which has drifted across the river, sometimes even to the foothills of the Alaska Range. If that pollution is over there, it at least is not so dense over Fairbanks. One wonders, then, if this limited area of flat land that we live in north of the river really limits Fairbanks' growth within the valley. Perhaps the real limit is the volume of air available for dilution of the city's pollution.

What do you think--should we bridge the Tanana?