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.......
At least twice as many people have died in automobile accidents in the last 24 hours in the United States as died on the bridge yesterday. The amazing thing is how many people survived that collapse. Therein lies the miracle. There was a busload of children on that bridge and I believe they all survived.
You don't suppose that is what they are celebrating in Iran and Syria, do you?
Me neither.
“For the same amount of effort, a terrorist with the ability to do this could have placed charges in an office building parking garage at night. Had a much lower chance of detection, been able to insure that the entire building collapsed and kill hundreds of people.”
I don’t understand why you (and others? it was way earlier) seem to think it’s easy to blow up a building, without all the knowledge of where best to put the charges.
Thats because it fell from it's own weight, once the adjacent supporting elements fell.
This bridge was a single unit, with each span supporting the ones on either end.
It was basically a balancing act.
Change the weight distribution, and down it goes.
Isn’t that the truth? It is beyond ludicrous. I wonder, WHO exactly are they going to blame once Bush is no longer in office? I really think some of them will be so frustrated, their heads will just pop right off.
Have you seen the video link posted on Drudge? How did the whole span fall together at the same time? It’s wierd how both ends go at the same time. I would have expected one joint to go and then the rest.
This is a long thread- and I’ve not kept up so don’t know if this has been posted. Just now on FOX Shep reported that some of the people that were unable to be rescued were giving messages to the rescuers for their families- let them know I love them...
Unimaginable.
save for later
My son-in-law doesn't think she'd have any reason to be in that area last night, as she lives and works in another part of the city, but in a situation like this, with so many souls still missing, you can't help but feel helpless with worry. All we can do is pray that we'll hear from her soon.
I believe this footage was from a security camera and not the MNDOT camera. Is what they keep saying on the local news anyway.
Don’t believe everything you hear on the media. That was simply a call from a child in the school bus after the accident to her mother who was not home. She left a hysterical message for her Mom.
The video shows that the failure occured at the S end of the bridge. That whole section acts like a sheet and fell like a sheet. It fell, because what held the sheet in place on the S side failed across an expansion joint. From the evidence of the torque on the fallen section in Jeffers still above, it looks like a SE side of the sheet (roadbed+trusses) came loose, and that was immediately followed by the SW side popping loose. If you look at the video, you’ll see the roadbed + trusses fall with the S side leading.
Judging from the apparent angle and height of the camera, it looks like an ATM security camera - the Liveleak hosted video DOES start a split second before the collapse.
If it is an ATM camera, perhaps someone was getting cash from the machine right before the bridge collapsed and they don’t want to put the person’s face in the video?
Any one of you locals able to tell us if there’s a bank or ATM at the indicated location?
I just tested my cellphone (612 exchange) calling from and calling to, and both calls completed.
I don’t think they are down anymore.
They should keep trying and call the Command Center.
I’m thinking that it actually was just a single point of failure that caused a cascade failure across the bridge. Remember, this was a non-redundant structure.
There was a call, reported right from First Responders, where a man DID call his family and tell them he loved them right before he died. He was still in his car.
That story is true. I saw the rescue worker report it last night. It was heartbreaking.
Well- I don’t believe everything I hear- and sometimes not even what I see:)
This was apparently from rescuers in the water- not the kids on the bus..
My best wishes to Gov. Pawlenty for wisdom and courage in the difficult days ahead.
It is just mind blowing to think that a relatively modern bridge can just fall like that.
You are right. I meant to include you in my last post #2236. My apologies.
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