35W Collapses

[swedepea]

Reworded to correct atrocious grammar that will have to be blamed on the shock of the moment....

Oh my word! The I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed into the river earlier this evening. Like the whole bridge collapsed. The bridge was about 60 feet above the water, so it fell from quite a height. I could see it from my office window (I

Comments

[lockergirl]

Whoa! I'm checking out the news reports on CNN right now. That looks horrible. Any idea how it happened?

[swedepea]

They're pretty sure it was something structural that failed, but haven't figured out what yet. Terrorism has pretty much been ruled out, and we aren't anywhere near any fault lines or other geological or weather-related issues.

There are a lot of theories as to what happened, but no one is sure. It had been checked out in routine maintenance a few times in the last 5 years, and while they found some minor issues, it was determined that they posed no serious or immediate threat. The more I hear, the more mysterious it seems.

One of the big problems, however, was that it was designed to stretched across the whole river, so as not to block river traffic. I'm sure you're much more familiar with all the technical terms than I am! However, because of that, once one part fell, the whole thing fell, because there was nothing left to hold it up.

Adding a couple more pictures above...

[jeanlouiseagain]

I'm glad to know that you are ok A

[adventurat]

I'm so glad you're all right. My brain seized up when I was trying to remember who all on my flist lives in MN. (Guh)

[swedepea]

No worries - it was worthy of brain seizing. Really crazy to look out my office window this morning and see one fewer bridge than there should be out there.