It’s August 22nd. In the summer of 2005, a proposed bridge in rural Alaska was becoming a hot-button controversy, as conservatives assailed its half-billion dollar price tag as emblematic of government overspending and pork-barrel politics. Jody, NIki, and Kellie look back at the “Bridget to Nowhere” controversy, what it says about how local and national politics intersect — and whether the bridge really was way too expensive after all. Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week. Find out more at thisdaypod.com This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices