Martyred, ha. I didn't even notice that. I just saw what the bridge did to that semi, and shuddered. The guy in the toilet, if there was one, has just been blessed by divine providence. Much better to be there, and have shat all over one's self.... than to fall into the river while on the throne.
RadioFan wrote:Risa wrote:Will this be occuring with other bridges built during that time period?
Do you
know of "other" bridges built during "that time period?"
Start a proper thread. Post a link with an actual news story. Do it now. Any other response, this thread gets sent to trots.
You caught me in the middle of re-editing. Thank you. You can trots it anyway. Just wondered why no one had said anything, since there are Minnesota trolls here. Reading the article, can't assume that its age caused it to collapse when there were crews working to repair it. The article doesn't say if it was a full scale 'replace the bridge' repair or just a 'minor' one.
So, for the engineers, what would usually cause this; how could it have been prevented; and what will happen now that the bridge has collapsed?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us/02 ... ge.html?hp
The entire span of the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 p.m. where the freeway crosses the river near University Avenue in Minneapolis.
By LIBBY SANDER
Published: August 2, 2007
CHICAGO, Aug. 1 — An interstate highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis loaded with rush-hour traffic dropped more than 60 feet into the Mississippi River tonight, sending at least 50 cars and passengers into the water below.
Local officials said there were at least three fatalities, and expected the number to increase through the night. One witness told CNN that a policeman him he had seen seven dead bodies. Dozens of injured drivers and passengers were taken to area hospitals.
The eight-lane Interstate 35 bridge, which links Minneapolis and St. Paul, was being repaired at the time, and an eyewitness told MSNBC that he heard a jackhammer being used on the roadway just before the collapse at about 6 p.m. Central time. Witnesses said the bridge, which was built in 1967, collapsed south to north, in three sections, sending a plume of smoke 100 feet into the sky.
The bridge had been supported by a steel structure.
Divers and rescue boats continued to search the river and the twisted wreckage of the bridge, with darkness setting in and rain beginning to fall. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune said some passengers were seen floundering in the river, calling for help.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” said one witness, Joe Costello, who described the scene to CNN from a hillside nearby.
“This is a very busy bridge,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, whose home is nearby. “It’s really right in the heart of the city. Thousands of commuters use this bridge every day,” she told CNN.
Television pictures showed a school bus on one section of the collapsed slab, but the back door was open and no passengers could be seen around the bus. Medical officials said several of the children had been brought to area hospitals, some with injuries. A column of smoke curled up from a tractor-trailer near the bus.
Berndt Toivonen, 51, of Minneapolis, told the Star-Tribune he was on his way home from a painting job when the bridge collapsed beneath his car.
“The bridge started to buckle,” he said. “It went up and it came down. I thought I was going to die.” Although he was uninjured, he said that all around him people were screaming from their cars, some with injuries, as he went from vehicle to vehicle helping people out.
Joe Clinton, chief of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, said there were six patients at the hospital with critical injuries and another 22 with injuries not considering life threatening. There was one fatality at the hospital, he said.
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