Two months earlier, in Brooklyn, a 90-year-old electrical substation exploded without warning. The lights went out on the A, C, F, and G lines. Thousands of people were stranded underground. One rider said it felt like a war movie. Another recorded the darkness on her phone: “No Wi-Fi. No updates. Just this.” She posted it with the caption: “NYC, 2024.”
“You just hope it breaks in a way you can survive.”
That wasn’t drama. That was arithmetic. Because the math is failing.
Across the country, infrastructure built for the 1950s is trying to carry the weight of 2025. In Prichard, Alabama, a city of 19,000, the water system loses 60% of its treated supply before it ever reaches a faucet. Families there spend $300 a month on bills—and still boil their water. When a fire broke out last year, firefighters showed up ready. But the hydrant was dry. “Empty hose,” said Lisa McGuire. “They couldn’t save the house.”
In Enterprise, Louisiana, one woman drives 40 miles round trip to do laundry. In Keystone, West Virginia, residents spent ten years under a boil water advisory—an entire childhood spent watching water get rationed like medicine.
In Pittsburgh, the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed on a snowy morning in 2022, despite maintenance warnings. Four people were injured. The bridge had been on the city’s list for years. It was still in service.
“He folded the shirt again. Just in case.”
That line came from a man whose son uses a wheelchair. After federal policy rollbacks, the boy’s replacement parts arrived six weeks late. He didn’t leave the house for two months.
The infrastructure that fails isn’t always steel and concrete.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, more than a third of U.S. bridges need repair or replacement. One in five water systems violate health standards. Thirty-nine percent of public roadways are in poor condition. A main water break happens somewhere in America every two minutes. There are 17,000 dams classified as “high hazard potential.”
And yet, this is our highest grade ever: a C.
Globally, the numbers shift from haunting to humiliating. China spends about 4.8% of its GDP on infrastructure—ten times the U.S. average. They built 46,000 kilometers of high-speed rail in less than two decades. Trains run at 220 mph, connect 80% of major cities, and carry six million passengers daily. Four times what American airlines carry in a day. Their investment in transit is equivalent to building a new Manhattan subway every six months.
Europe doesn’t just build. It links. Through the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), the EU has pledged €25.8 billion to stitch its continent together. Rail Baltica will connect Poland to Estonia. The Lyon–Turin line will cross the Alps. The Fehmarnbelt tunnel will link Denmark and Germany underwater. The goal is full-capital-to-capital high-speed rail by 2050.
Italy is already building the future. Naples to Bari: a four-hour trip cut to two. Southern ports linked directly to the core of Europe.
“We don’t need a moonshot. We need track laid in the right direction.”