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.......
Did anyone catch the driver being interviewed on FOX a few minutes ago? He was on the bridge when the incident happened; he said he heard “explosions”.
A Local Reporter blamed it on the hotter climate (Global Warming...)
As you may have noted, I really don’t think it is terrorism. Not at all a choice juicy target.
I am not an engineer, but I am in large scale commercial construction and I’m familiar with structural steel and concrete. There is a lot more to this than just slapping on some explosives like they show in the movies. This bridge DROPPED, amateur explosives would have blown OUT. The piles look untouched (which is the first place an amateur would have placed explosives). And NOBODY reported any odor from explosives.
Could terrorists have done this? YES. However, they would have needed demolition experts, structural engineers and original plans for the bridge. With this level of expertise, it would have made more sense to destroy an office building full of people.
Who knows, but it may have just been the shearing effect of a spam going down, maybe, maybe not.
No. Only if it killed/injured lots of blacks.
Stop! Your making sense!
;)
Structure photos of the bridge pre-collapse are on this page as well.
More like, creative biology.
(((And what do you take for your blood pressure? :) DC commutes are painful when you just live 11 miles from the Hill, I can’t imagine a commute like yours.)))
After twelve years of crossing the bridge twice a day, I don’t even notice I’m doing it anymore. It’s just another stretch of road.
Lots of people said they heard “booms” or “snaps” or “grinding”. That’s not necessarily “explosive”; take the words people use with a grain of salt. There is DEFINITELY going to be booming if such a structure breaks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bridge
The Silver Bridge was an eyebar chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and was named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio (near Gallipolis, Ohio) over the Ohio River.
On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed while it was choked with rush hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Investigation of the wreckage pointed to the cause of the collapse being the failure, due to a small defect, of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain. It was also noted that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it was originally designed for and was poorly maintained.
Comments like those of the reporter...make me wanna swear. They are so ignorant. It's August for cryin' out loud. It's been getting hot in August in this part of the U.S. for eons, except for that little 'bout with the glaciers and all.
It was a practice run and the jihadists have now determined that more explosives are needed to do in WHOLE bridge(s). "Hey, Achmed, the placement was not quite right. Try the middle pylon next time."<----Kidding.
Did the blast push up that piece of the bridge?
I was under the impression that newer bridges were built with enough redundancy for single failure survival and that it was some of the mid and early twentieth century structures that were not? I am I being too hopeful?
The Republican convention won't start in the Twin Cities for a year. Plenty of time for the left wing nuts to settle on the specifics of their delusions. There will probably be protesters at the site for Katie Couric to visit protesting Bush's sabotage as well as Greenies protesting the enviromental destruction of constructing a new bridge on the site.
Or the Illinois 80 bridge during an ice storm and watch a truck hit one side and topple into the the water from the other. A very long fall.
“A University of Minnesota Civil Engineer in a report to MN-DOT recently noted that this bridge is considered to be a non-redundant structure. That is, if any one member fails, the entire bridge can collapse. A key factor is that there are only four pylons holding up the arch. Any damage to any one pylon would be catastropic.”
From this link: http://www.johnweeks.com/bridges/pages/ms16.html
He’s saying terrorists WOULDN’T strike there because they’d like it too much.
Hope everything goes well for your people. It must be hard waiting. But I’m sure it doesn’t help when everyone is jamming the lines.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.