Bridge Out 1

Posted by Beth (Minneapolis, United States) on 3 September 2007 in Cityscape & Urban.

As you may know, 5 weeks ago, a bridge in Minnesota fell into the Mississippi River. The bridge connected the "Twin Cities" of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which are right next to each other, separated by the river. I happen to have grown up in the Cities. I didn't drive the 35W bridge much ... but I can't get to work, my parents' house, rehearsals, the gym, or most other places without driving over a smaller bridge 2 miles south of the one that collapsed. Scary. I'd like to feature a few shots from this disaster in the next few days. The story isn't hot nationally or internationally anymore, but we're not even close to finished with it here.

This shot was taken on August 2, 2007 - the day after the collapse. Every single possible entry to the collapse area was blocked off. All of them. I can't even count how many that was - the bridge was over an area with river flats that had popular driving and biking roads, so they had a lot of blocking off to do. There were police cars from multiple suburbs running around in downtown Minneapolis - that certainly doesn't happen very often. There were staff at every road block to make sure no one snuck past and got killed by the still shifting, groaning rubble.

If you're not from Minnesota and you'd like some perspective, you might like to visit USA Today's page at www.usatoday.com/news/graphics/bridge-collapse/flash.htm. They have a very nice arial shot that shows the entire span of the collapsed bridge.

Also, if you'd like to see the latest news, try www.dot.state.mn.us/i35wbridge/index.html, the site of the MinnDOT, the Minnesota Department of Transportation.