It's just something kind of special. It'll be a big plus to the whole area. Mayor David Cartmell was equally excited. Kentucky legislators began pushing for a new Ohio River span in the 1970s but it was Mr. Cartmell's mother, a former mayor, who returned from a trip to Arizona in the 1980s and said the new bridge should resemble her picture of a cable-stayed span there. Cable-stayed bridges involve the diagonal stretch of steel cables.
Suspension bridges involve a vertical stretch of cables.
It's a credit to the engineering profession that something that major could be put here in this valley. We're going to become much closer to southern Ohio. He and Billie Eitel, mayor of Aberdeen, which has about 1,300 residents, were the first to drive across the bridge, traveling in Mr. Cartmell's red Corvette. They broke through red tape to lead the other vehicles across the span that entails a web of 80 steel cables and two concrete towers, undergirded by seven concrete piers. They all professed a belief that the bridge will improve Maysville's economy.