What a day it has been for all the people involved in some way or another with the loss of the I35W bridge over the Mississippi River between downtown Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota. It all started Wednesday evening just as the rush hour was nearing it's end but while the bridge, because of construction work that took away some of the lanes, was bumper to bumper with cars, trucks and buses going to their various destinations.
Shortly after 6 p.m. the steel understructure in some horrible, bizarre way gave out, twisted and started a chain reaction of crumbling steel that took away the support from the concrete road bed it was supposed to hold up for many more years and allowed them to pitch, drop, and turn into a distorted mass of horror for people on the bridge and people who were close enough to view what was happening. In the many years I have traversed that bridge in the course of the ordinary comings and goings of a real estate agent I had never thought of it as a bridge. Uusally, almost every time I have crossed a bridge of any height or length the thought has crossed my mind, "What happens if this bridge falls out from under us?". That's a question a number of people here in the Twin Cities won't have to imagine anymore.
How could something like this happen? Bridges aren't supposed to just fall down, are they? Many people will blame the various branches of government they believe might have been responsible for neglect, lack of funding, inefficiency, poor planning at the beginning, or whatever reason some politician or contractor hired by the politicians might have been at fault. We have all had our own variations of thought in the aftermath of this disaster. I'll have to admit, for me it certainly put a new light on the billion + for 12 miles of light rail or the dollars the state might put out toward new stadiums for what ever sport.
Finally, I had to agree with the expert opinion of Stephen Flynn, the author of a Popular Mechanics op ed piece, found at http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4219981.html, when he states that we have squandered the legacy left us by previous generations and that we behave like spoiled children of well-to-do parents who have no idea what it takes to sustain the quality of our everyday lives.
Now at the beginning of the second day, my prayers are with the people who have been affected by this terrible tragedy, the recovery efforts and with all the people that will be involved with the investigation of the collapse, the inspection of other bridges in the state, the planning and rebuilding of this bridge and the maintenance/improvement of all our roads and bridges in this state in the hopes that in the future, no matter where we live, we won't see or hear a story like this open the morning or evening news.
Everyone here in the Minneapolis/St Paul area has responded with such a marvelos outpouring of care, concern and help that it makes me proud to live and do business here in what today, despite a terrible tradegy, is the Number 1 place to live in these United States.
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