"Its retirement signals an end to an era of American culture—and ambition."
What'd, fuckin' Putin ghost-write this?
The nostalgia is fine, but calling it "...perhaps the pinnacle of American engineering excellence," well, to paraphrase The Dude: "For you, maybe."[0] My engineering excellence kicks fucking ass, and I still have those values, and I'm an American.
Maybe those who aspire to engineering excellence should've gone to actual engineering school instead of majoring in literature.
[0] Perhaps you thought I was going to choose "That's just, like, your opinion man."