I-35W Bridge Collapsed

As 7 o'clock approached, I turned my radio on to the Twins game. Throughout the game, John and Danny mentioned a tragedy on the 35W bridge, but they provided no details. They expected clean up to last through the night and into the following day. From this information, I suspected a fatal accident occurred with cars piled up everywhere or possibly a car broke through the guardrail and fell into the river. I never would have guessed the disaster that actually happened.

I called Mom to find out more since I my TV is not hooked up. She had been in town, but Dad had informed her that the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed around 6 PM--during the heart of rush hour. How does an entire bridge fall into a river? Approximately 50 cars landed in the water. Mom suggested I come to the farm to see images.

Hearing details on the radio is meaningless without images to explain them. The pictures are incredible. Eight lanes of roadway lay on the surface of the water with cars parked on top. (Explain to me how the bridge did not submerge.) Some sections of the bridge over land fell off their supports while other parts remained intact. Train cars were caught and crushed underneath a fallen bridge section. A semi burned while a school bus stopped a short distance away. Eyewitness reports provided similar stories: "I felt something rumble. Then, I was in free fall and saw concrete dust fly in the air."

Considering the number of vehicles on the bridge at the time, the low number of fatalities is amazing. More people could have been on the bridge, but two lanes in each direction were closed for minor repair work. There were plenty of injuries, but emergency crews worked quickly to help the victims.

The Twins discussed the disaster with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which requested that Wednesday's baseball game be played to keep people in the Dome as long as possible and away from the scene of the accident. In a similar respect, the Twins postponed the final game of the series with Kansas City to reduce traffic on Thursday.

This is a major bridge. According to the news, 140,000 cars travel it every day. I-35W is the main artery through Minneapolis for north/south traffic. Certainly, an investigation into the cause of the collapse will begin immediately as will clean up of the concrete and steel debris. One can only wonder how long until a new bridge is built. The state already has budget issues regarding transportation. Many projects are going to be affected negatively when an I-35W bridge becomes top priority.