Bridge would honor O’Callaghan, Tillman

Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Legislation that would name the Hoover bypass bridge for former Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan and Pat Tillman, the fallen Arizona football player and soldier, is marching through the Senate.

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., on Tuesday attached the legislation as an amendment to a massive transportation spending bill. Reid initially approached Sen. John McCain about naming the bridge after O'Callaghan and McCain, but McCain said "no way," Reid said.

"O'Callaghan would have been pleased because Pat Tillman was really his kind of guy," Reid said.

O'Callaghan, a Korean War hero, longtime executive editor of the Las Vegas Sun and a popular two-term governor, died March 5. Tillman, a talented defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals who spurned accolades for ditching his lucrative football contract to become a U.S. Army Ranger, was killed by friendly fire in April.

A Tillman family spokesman was not immediately available. Kyl also was unavailable.

But shortly after Tillman was killed, Kyl said, "Pat Tillman is a great American hero in the truest sense. Pat's memory is going to be a part of the Arizona tradition for a long time to come."

The new bridge for U.S. 93 across the Colorado River, designed to ease traffic congestion on the Hoover Dam, will be a quarter of a mile south of the dam. The $234 million project now under construction could be completed by 2008, officials have said.