35W bridge down
Wow, it’s still hard to believe we had a bridge collapse in Minneapolis. I didn’t ride around that area very often, but it’s a huge bridge and a main traffic artery - 120,000 cars every day, apparently. My last trip was actually under the bridge, riding my bike home from a dinner out with friends a couple of weeks ago.
I heard about it between hospital stops unrelated to this. My youngest daughter had a very odd vasovagal-style reaction to a playground injury yesterday (hit her hip on a park bench), and we ran her over to the ER for an ECG test (she’s fine). I heard only bits and pieces of the bridge story until i could get to the TV around 10, after the kids were asleep.
Here’s the Strib story on it, hope it doesn’t disappear into the archives too soon. Note that as of last night, it had increased to 7 dead, more injured and some 20 missing, according to the late TV news. More WCCO coverage.
Excellent photo set and commentary here from someone who probably lives in the same apartment building i lived in for one summer while at university.
I just heard that the brother of a co-worker died on the bridge.
Thank you to everyone who was nearby to pitch in to help. Thank you to all the bloggers for the first-hand coverage and photos.
update: the two best links i’ve found so far - a Flickr page with a great ‘before’ picture of the bridge, and the wikipedia entry, which is naturally evolving as the story unfolds.
update #2: a guy on my cycling team saw the bridge collapse right in front of him as he was commuting home from work. He went right up there and started helping people out of cars, about 10 of them in 20 minutes until the emergency crews were there. There’s a great photo essay and audio of his story on the Stib site. He’s a darn good road and track bike racer too.