In early May, a thick crack slicing through a critical steel support beam was discovered on the Hernando de Soto Bridge spanning the Mississippi River between Memphis and eastern Arkansas. Not only has car traffic since been banned on this major artery, but boat traffic beneath it was temporarily halted as well. Opened in 1973, this viaduct is on the younger side of this country’s failing infrastructure. (About half of the 617,000 bridges in the U.S. are more than 50 years old.) Despite the delayed finding—reports indicate signs of a crack may have gone unnoticed for years—things could have ended much worse, a fate that was not spared to Genoa, Italy.