The new look of downtown Wheeling truly is coming into focus. All new streets and sidewalks, those odd (yet functional when it actually rains) bioswales that now are less weeds and more plants, and new and planned construction throughout Main and Market streets are leading to a level of optimism not felt in years.

Yet one piece remains missing. The downtown Wheeling wants — no, in fact, the downtown Wheeling needs — must include a reopened Wheeling Suspension Bridge.

The 176-year-old span stands as more than a historic engineering marvel — it is woven into the very fabric of our community. Opened in 1849, it was the first bridge spanning the Ohio River and remains perhaps the most consequential antebellum civil engineering structure in the nation.

Yet since September 2019, following sev

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