Image courtesy of Scotty Roberts Photography, taken by Raini Olsen
Posted on 08/01/2007 4:28:27 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis.....
Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars......
Just now breaking.......
The Long Bridge - made by that overrated !$#$!##$@hat of the same name to keep ships from going upstream. Typical liberal SOB thinking. They should destroy it just on that principle.
P.S. Sorry I am being sarcastic and smartaleck.
It is a personality flaw. A habit from junior high.
I am going to try to be more informative, and less critical on this thread, posting to you and others.
What one or the other of us thinks he/she knows and tries to embarrass the other over doesn’t save one life, or answer any questions.
If I may ask, are you an engineer? Architect?
I am neither. If that answers what I think you were asking when you first responded to me.
Olbermann was on for a good part of the night. He did a good job.
I sat on the Ambassador bridge for more than an hour this past weekend waiting to get back to Michigan from Canada — one lane for cars, and one lane for huge semis. It was very disturbing sitting there as the bridge shook, while I inched slowly forward. Too much time to think what I would do if we started plunging into the Detroit river below. Got over my anxiety when I realized I would be just plain dead upon impact.
YOu are so right - where are the priorities in these local govt’s. People need to start going to these meetings and give them Hell and vote them out if things don’t change.
I dispise Old bitter man olbermann.
Someone made a decision to divert limited resources to a money losing Liberal Choo Choo Train instead of maintaining substandard bridges that everyday taxpaying schmucks have to use every day to schlep to work.
The bridges are there and need to be maintained. Light rail is a Liberal wet dream. Buses are cheaper and more flexible than any fixed rail system.
Everybody needs the bridge. Nobody needs Light Rail.
TPTB made their choice and they bet wrong.
As a conservative, I want to see accountability.
Bridges just don’t fall from the sky. Somebody screwed up.
Yeah, he’s no favorite of mine, but many folks on the thread last night were commenting on the good job of reporting he was doing, and they were right. Might not like his politics, but he was doing a much better job than Shep.
I like your theory on why the bridge collapsed. Pretty good analysis for a layperson.
Being that the bridge was already stressed, the extra tons of weight of all the concrete trucks, etc., might have been a factor.
At least you’re not blaming it on Global Warming, like some of the Mediots.
While it is a different type of bridge, the idea of sabotage had not been ruled out when the photo was taken. Also, couldn’t the same forces that affected the collapse been at work on the one they were standing on.
“Who pocketed the payments from Union workers?”
Tony Soprano
{I humbly salute and admire the people of Minnesota, in or not in official positions, construction worker or idle pedestrian.
One of the principles where I worked for a long time was “SET THE EXAMPLE”.
They certainly have.}
Thank you!
You are right and looking back I can see where I might have made it seem that the definition of redundancy has changed it hasn’t.
I know that with the engineers I’ve worked with, the best ones are well past retirement age and are able to spot stuff that no software program could. However, I believe that there have been advances in the density of concrete as well as steel.
And regardless of what anyone says, nobody will convince me that it was impossible for the resurfacing to play a role in this.
At the risk of sounding insensitive, the insurance companies would PREFER this to be terrorism, because otherwise they are out hundreds of millions of dollars. So, multiple insurance companies will have their own experts there to try to pin the blame on someone else and they WILL NOT cover it up if it’s terrorism.
I am really bugged by something! About a hour ago,President Bush spoke on the WH lawn concerning the tragedy. Right in the middle of the statement, FOX NEWS cut him off!I went to CNN and they ironically were still covering him. Then after another few minutes CNN cut him off. Personally, when the President is speaking, whether or not you agree with what he is saying, and he is addressing the nation, I find it very offensive to “ cut him off”. Have we become so rude and arrogant as a nation that he is just another person at the mike?? I remember a time, years ago now, when the President spoke, EVERY station and every body listened.
A sad day in many ways for our country.
Polly
Saw this on TB2000: (I didn’t see the video, can’t on slow dialup.)
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=250957&page=6
Run the video.......at first, there is no bridge on the spy cam......suddenly the bridge appears, and it implodes........It looks like the spy cam footage was edited........look carefully at the footage.....Plus the woman in the video is running, before the bridge collapses..........why? The women running in the video actual disappears, as the picture of the collasping bridge appears......why? (about 3 or 4 seconds into the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osocGiofdvc
waggy, I think I would prefer this to be terrorism, rather than just some random bridge collapse. When I think of the hundreds of bridges built like this in the sixties and seventies, possibly with poor design and substandard materials, by unions rife with corruption and fraud...
that is scarier than one or two crazy mosque members with semtex.
Well, actually - infrastructure basically doesn’t pay off, unless tolls are set in place.
Rail and public x can.
And as a rail-lover, I can tell you there are many benefits to trains vs. buses - as I say, the latter have all the cons of all other transportation w/o any of the pros.
Often the problem with rail is in the execution. Half-hearted attempts ARE limited, by their nature. A full smart plan is great though. Baltimore’s subway/light-rail stinks. It is extremely limited in scope, that’s why. It’s not at all well-planned. Someone was really stupid - in this city, not a shock.
But DC’s subways are fantastic, and extremely popular - because they cover maximum area and are very efficient.
Same is true of NY and Boston, etc - although those are much older. I had to use new examples, though.
Did you see this video of the collapse?
Image courtesy of Scotty Roberts Photography, taken by Raini Olsen
I turned the Prez off in midsentence when he used this tragedy to immediately badger the Congress to pass all his spending bills.
What the heck kind of “compassionate” leadership is that?
Doesn’t matter. Different type = different weaknesses and strengths.
As for terrorism - highly doubtful.
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