Look across the Columbia River on a foggy fall morning, near Fort Vancouver, the hub for early European settlers in the Northwest. A steel skeleton rises high above the river and everything around it. But not for long.

What we see here is a once-in-a-century opportunity to replace the hulking green Interstate Bridge, a pathway to $4 billion to fund it and plans for a light-rail train and tolls.

What we don’t see is a consensus on how it will look and what it might cost us: Does a new bridge across the Columbia River need to be beautiful as well as functional?

We have two answers, which is the rub.