Major Bridge Collapses in Minneapolis

[AlexL]

Holy shit... one of Minneapolis' major bridges collapsed. It happened towards the tail end of rush hour.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_on_re_us/minnesota_bridge_collapse

It was on the local news when I got home from work.

This is terrible...


- E.

[Thor Von Clemson]

My mother in law called me today to make sure I got home from work safely. I did not know what happened until she told me. I was down that way earlier today but I got home about an hour before it happened.

This is terrible. My co-workers and I spend around 3-4 hours on the road each day and we are all travelling that way quite a bit.

I talked to my boss and some of our subs and no one was there at the time but man... this is horrible. I talked to some people who are down there and they say it is much worse than the news is reporting.

Not to mention what this is going to do to traffic.

[finnman]

[fr0sty]

Not good.

[semagic]

good luck to our brothers and sisters in minnesota... my thoughts are with you.

[Thor Von Clemson]

I was there today a few hours before it happened... right friggin there. Driving right on the bridge. Kind of scary to think about what happened a few hours later...I did not think about it until now but man....

[Cleveland Metal]

This is so terrible. I can hardly imagine, although we have a bridge here (recently closed) that used to jump and sway so bad it just scared the crap out of me to cross.

What a absolutely terrifying way to die, and how terrifying it was for the survivors really... Looking at it is just horrible...

Pretty amazingly serious situation for the safety forces too... Hard to be prepared for that...

My heart goes out to these people... Just tragic...

[hippietim]

this is awful

[Bengal]

Very sad. Cements in my mind why bridges freak me out...

[Joe_Steeler]

That is so fucked up is not even funny.
What the heck happened?
These poor people are going back home after work and get into that hell.
Not good at all.

[Inazone]

This happened right after I got home from work. I am down in the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis, but was driving over that bridge Monday during rush hour to meet a friend who lives a couple miles past it. With all the construction going on there, a couple of lanes were closed, but any decrease in actual traffic would have been offset by the number of construction vehicles, workers and materials.

It's a strange thing, that once you've been driving over that bridge for years, you start to forget that there's a river 60+ feet below. The way I see it, it's amazing that anyone survived at all.

[chrisolson]

Scary man... I went for my bike ride tonight and went with a group I don't usually go with. Normally I go by myself on Wednesdays - and I ride right underneath that bridge. Prayers & vibes for all who were involved. I don't know if anyone I know was involved -- I work about 2 miles from there, and a lot of my co-workers cross it to go to and from work.

It's also about the WORST place it could have happened - and the worst time. It's been getting deck work all summer, and it's been basically a parking lot all summer. I bet that had something to do with it. It'll take years to get that fixed, and it's THE main highway through the city.

[chrisolson]

Oh -- 6 fatalities so far. My heart goes out to the families. Very frightening. But also miraculous that the death toll has been that low - truly amazing...

[Cleveland Metal]

After seeing the carnage, there has to be a lot more than 6 dead... This would be amazing if it were that low a toll...

[chrisolson]

It'll rise - but if you had ANY idea the number of vehicles that cross this bridge... It amazing there weren't mass casualties. It is bumper to bumper there, and since it's under construction, it's that way ALL day.