I've Been Across That Bridge Thousands Of Times

As you have probably seen in media reports (more on that later), a major bridge in Minneapolis collapsed yesterday. Many people are injured and the fatality count varies. When I worked at FedEx, I crossed that bridge every work day, twice a day. When we head up to Evil Grandmother & Dreadful Man's or Oma & Opa's, that's the bridge we cross. I found out about the collapse from Oma, who I'm sure spent a few anxious moments wondering about us, when she called us at home. Let me back up. After work, I went to EG & DM's to pick up the girls plus 2 of their cousins Jessie and Emma. I don't think that car has ever had so much estrogen in it. So I'm heading down 35W toward said bridge when the traffic starts to back up. They have been working on resurfacing the road and the bridge now for a few weeks. I took the Stinson exit and wind my way through the U of M campus and cross the river on the Washington Ave. We get home and Emma and Jessie's mom is waiting for them and KyKy, who was going to spend the night at their house. We send them off, TOYH shows up and we order Chinese, because it's been that kind of week. Oma called during dinner to confirm that we were all ok because she knows that we use that bridge frequently. I flipped the channel on the teevee and sure enough, there were pictures of the carnage. I figure if I had stayed on 35W, we would have crossed the bridge 10-15 minutes before it fell. After I hung up, it was our turn to be a little anxious. Ann had left with the girls, and we didn't know where they were going, couldn't remember what time they left etc. It was highly unlikely they would have been going that direction, but there is still that slightly panicked feeling when you can't reach Ann or KyKy by mobile phone. All the circuits were tied up and calls and texts were not going through. KyKy eventually got back to us and we were able to relax.

On my commute to work by bike, if I just look up while crossing the Stone Arch bridge downtown, I would be looking directly at the 35W bridge. It was nothing special. In fact, it was rather utilitarian and ugly. This morning I went up to the Stone Arch to cross the river, but they've temporarily closed it. I looked down river all the way to the 10th Ave bridge. There were no green trusses blocking my view. Very strange. As I continue on in my bike commute, I cross 35W on a pedestrian/bike bridge about 4 blocks north of the river bridge. When I cross that bridge, I want to sneer at the drivers stuck in their cars (ok I want to flip 'em the bird) but I don't because it would be terribly hypocritical, since I have to drive that highway myself sometimes. Today I crossed the bridge and it was quiet. No traffic. I looked south to see the one section of the river bridge slanted up like a ramp to nowhere, dotted with abandoned cars. Very strange. I can't imagine the horror or terror those people felt seeing the traffic in front of them disappear off the face of the earth.

Lately I've been annoyed on my bike commute because 10th Ave SE has been busier. The traffic increased because of the road construction on 35W, people were trying to avoid the tie-ups on the Interstate so they were taking the back roads. Yesterday there could have been people who avoided the collapse because they were avoiding the traffic. Just like me. Time to stop being annoyed. Someone pointed out that because there were two lanes closed on the bridge for resurfacing, it probably minimized the casualties since there was less traffic using the bridge. It occurred to me that the slow speeds on the bridge probably saved some lives too. Imagine if that school bus with 60 kids was hurtling along at 50mph when the bridge fell. I'd rather not think about it myself.

Local media coverage varied in quality. Channel 5 was the best that I saw. They were careful and they kept their speculation to a minimum. Channel 4 was ok, except for that pompous ass Don Shelby reading bridge inspection reports off the MDOT website on live teevee, trying to find a smoking gun. Ummm Don, your're not an engineer or a bridge inspector, so shut up until you find somebody who knows what they're talking, about preferrably someone who was involved in the inspection of the bridge itself. The Big Stupid Award goes to Channel 9 (Fox Newz!) of course. They had an eyewitness claim he/she saw explosions before the collapse. Oooooh parrot that back right on live teevee with no corroboration. Then we can play up the terrorism angle. Morons. Also heard on Channel 9, "We don't know how many pedestrians were on that bridge when it fell." Robyne honey, there were no pedestrians. It was an Interstate Highway. Construction workers yes. Pedestrians no. But hey that means they cans speculate about a higher body count. Stupid, stupid, stupid. This is what we get with live teevee running uninterrupted reports for hours at a time. Filling up the airwaves with stupid.