Breaking: Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

KSTP TV 5/ME | 8/1/07 | Me

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis.....

Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars......

Just now breaking.......

[MNlurker]

looks to be heavy stuff going right towards collapse.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

...”Weren’t the flying Imams (sp?) from Minneapolis?”

Nope. They were from Phoenix.

[fatima]

They do it down the shore.It is very loud and we get a letter every-time a new house is going up for the dates of the pile driving.

[SouthTexas]

Have heard almost nothing but from the talking heads.

[cryptical]

Well, missed this one by a hair. Had to work a little late on the U campus, as I was getting to my car there were a lot of sirens and fire trucks heading that way. 50-50 chance that I either hop across Washington Avenue bridge to get on 35W or go up 4th Street and get on there on a normal day.

Pretty crazy looking on TV, I can’t imagine what kind of failure would have brought this bridge down.

One thing I know, this all would have been avoided if we just had more light rail (/sarcasm).

[dfwgator]

I am not an engineer, but my first thought was what happened with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. My understanding was that the wind created resonance.

[Texas Eagle]

It's easy to see from this picture provided by FReeper Gideon7 of the bridge pre-collapse, that if all the traffic was routed to the outside lane, there really isn't a whole lot of support provided by those cantilevers.

[Reaganesque]

Yeah, I can walk down there tomorrow when I won’t be in the way.

[MNlurker]

They also have constant running traffic cams in that area which I am sure are being gone over as we type.

[LukeL]

People want answers as quickly as possible. This reminds me of how doctors are going on the record saying the Cheif Justice has Epilepsy, even though they have never examined him or seen his medical records.

It makes me really hate the media.

[mplsconservative]

No it has not flooded lately. We are in a severe drought.

[yorkie]

KARE11.com (live feed) just reported that in ten minutes from now, there will be a news conference.

[spunkets]

"“pile driving”? What is this term mean? "

It means they'd be pounding in posts into the river bed with a hydraulic hammer. Those posts would be used to support the bridge. Maybe they were for reenforcement, or replacement.

[ninergold3]

Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve just switched back to Fox. MS-NBC was doing a great job though Fox has more updated and better pictures.

[SE Mom]

Exactly. Maybe in a few days.

It’s just so bizarre.

[LukeL]

Those cameras often just have a live feed and never record.

[Reaganesque]

I’ve seen some lightning and heard thunder but, it’s not too bad right now. It could pass by.

[Sawdring]

We haven’t had rain for a long time. Drought. I think there was construction on the bridge.

[GOP Poet]

Definitely could be terrorist related. A woman who was able to drive off of the bridge said she saw explosions going off all around her. This was reported via FOX but you know how things that one hears early on actually turn out to be a red herring or incorrect?

Well, I am reserving judgment, but prepared for anything. A terrorist attack makes more sense then this thing just collapsing, but I am no structural engineer either. We’ll see how it shakes out. God bless the people and the families.

[Shelayne]

Yep, it’s raining here. I am in a suburb just west of Minneapolis.

I am praying that it manages to pass by.

Normally, it doesn’t get dark until 9-9:30. This is just so awful.