Supposedly the really bad thing about the so-called Bridge to Nowhere was that it took a shitload of federal money, and directed it to a mostly unneeded bridge.
What really happened was that the feds agreed to send the money anyway and leave it up to Alaskans as to how to spend it.
And that is what happened.
So the money was simply pissed away on other stuff that might have been even more useless than the bridge.
