A Country Breaking Down | Elizabeth Drew | New York Review of Books | 8th February 2016

Devastating survey of American government failure to invest in infrastructure. “We’re a backward country”. The average bridge is 42 years old, and many have structural problems. One-third of all roads are in “poor or mediocre condition”. There is no high-speed rail system. Half the locks on waterways are more than fifty years old. “The water pipes underneath the White House are said to still be made of wood”