Mississippi River bridge collapses

[odene497]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/01/bridge.collapse/index.html

 

(CNN) -- At least three people were killed when an interstate bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed Wednesday evening, plunging cars and chunks of concrete into the Mississippi River below.

 

 

Mark Lacroix photographed the collapsed bridge from his apartment window.

 

There were "lots" of injuries, said the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department.

 

The accident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET). There were 50 to 100 cars on the bridge at the time, according to early estimates.

 

Lt. Amelia Huffman of the Minneapolis Police Department told CNN affiliate KARE it was "not clear at this point what caused the collapse" of the Interstate 35W bridge near University Avenue.

 

"We have personnel there in the rescue effort," she said. "I have never seen anything remotely like this before."

 

Shortly after the collapse, a tractor trailer was burning on the bridge.

 

Rescue workers are using boats to help remove people from the water, bringing them up on the river bank.

 

Aerial footage showed the middle of the bridge caved in, lying in the Mississippi River, with cars both on top and submerged in the water.

 

Witnesses told CNN a school bus filled with children was on the bridge when it collapsed, but they also said the bus did not drop into the water and it appeared that the children had all been evacuated.

 

The main part of the collapsed span is not submerged, but the span clearly separated from the land-based sections of the highway on both the north and south ends of the bridge.

 

Don't Miss

I-Report: Are you there? Share video, photos

Mark Lacroix, who lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building near the bridge, told CNN he saw the last seconds of the collapse.

 

"I heard this massive rumbling and shaking basically and looked out my window," Lacroix said. "It just fell right into the river." Watch Lacroix describe the collapse »

 

He said there had been construction work on the bridge in recent weeks.

 

 

Nighttime construction took place on the bridge Tuesday night and was to take place again Wednesday night, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation,

 

The highway would have been restricted to a single lane in both directions from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. both nights.

 

 

This is pretty crazy.

 

-Nick

[Ccron10]

I heard that the bridge was being worked on at that time when this happened. Could be a structural failure or a mistake on the construction workers' part. 6 people have been found dead so far. This doesn't happen very often. I feel sorry for the people on the bridge at the time.

[Angry_Gumball]

Sounds like a structural problem to me...That was scary seeing that on TV...Immediately gave me flashbacks of the horrifying images of the SF Bay Bridge I saw on TV during the Loma Prieta quake.

[Disney Dood]

I think I would never go a bridge again if I were on that.

 

And I don't think I'd cross this one, ever.

 

Much less this one.

[coasterdude5]

I know a person who won't cross bridges (like that one) for anything. She definitely won't be crossing them now...

 

My prayers go out to the victims and their families.

[DCody]

My hubby (who lives part-time in Minneapolis) drove across the bridge less than an hour before it collapsed. Scary as hell.

 

Before I finally got in touch with him, I kept getting the "all circuits busy" message. People in the Twin Cities are freaking out, understandably.

[Token Yankee Guy]

My hubby (who lives part-time in Minneapolis) drove across the bridge less than an hour before it collapsed. Scary as hell.

 

Before I finally got in touch with him, I kept getting the "all circuits busy" message. People in the Twin Cities are freaking out, understandably.

 

Wow, I'm glad he's alright.

 

I'm watching the news right now and they said that when the bridge was inspected in 2005, it was sited for having some structural inefficiency.

 

Also, the official death count is 4 at this time.

 

Oh man, they just showed video footage (looks to be from a traffic cam from the river shore) showing the bridge collapsing.

[ginzo]

I think I would never go a bridge again if I were on that.

 

And I don't think I'd cross this one, ever.

 

Much less this one.

 

Bah, those are perfectly safe. The real question is would you cross this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI

[steel]

That's very close to my childhood home. Maybe five minutes away. We've got a lot of friends in the Cities, but we're fairly sure they're all okay (thank God).

[Scaparri]

A security camera actually caught the collapse on video. This is just insane. Can you imagine if you were just one of the motorists on the adjacent bridge and you witnessed this? How you not cause/get into a fender bender?

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4081030565795767790&q=minneapolis+bridge+collapse+security+video&total=8&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

[BigBird]

My friend's in St. Paul right now, visiting family, but I'm pretty sure he's alright.

[Kroger8]

Looks like some security cameras caught the bridge collapse!

 

www.liveleak.com/view?i=1ab_1186054443&p=1