The proposed bridge across Knik Arm near Anchorage, otherwise known as Don Young’s Way, became a subject of national ridicule and driver of earmark reform in Congress. Young sponsored an earmark of more than $230 million dollars in the 2005 federal highway transportation bill for the bridge that is to be named after himself.

Young relinquished the earmark after a national uproar, but the money was appropriated anyway, without earmarking a specific project.

If it is ever built, Young’s family would benefit from the envisioned two-mile bridge that would connect Anchorage with undeveloped land in the Mat-Su Borough. Young’s son-in-law, Art Nelson, is part-owner of 60 acres of now-inaccessible land that would become accessible and increase in value if the bridge were built.