Shoutbox

Left: The beginning of the bridge is just mangled... Right: Cars floating on random slabs of concrete in the river

The following is a summary written by myself...
The I-35W River Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota near Washington Ave has collapsed at 6:05PM CST on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007.  The department of homeland security does not believe terrorism is involved, however, the FBI has been dispatched to the scene of the accident and is actively investigating the incident. Between 50 to 60 cars were thrown into the river with this collapse.  Over 100 People were injured; 5 people have been confirmed dead (this number has been reduced due to unknown changes, potentially in the way that they are counting the bodies); 8 people are currently missing.  Hennepin County Medical Center had gone into Code Orange Emergency Response Mode and most area hospitals were close to capacity with victims from the incident.  Surface construction work on the bridge was going on at the time of the collapse, however, it would not have affected the bridge in this way.  Rescue crews continue to search into the night looking for people, but it has officially been turned into a Recovery Mission rather than a Rescue Mission at this time.  A delegation from Washington D.C. was in the Twin Cities Metro Area on August 2nd, 2007, and inspected the bridge disaster.  The head of the NTSB has ordered all states to reinspect their bridges of similar design type to ensure that they are operating without any of the potential flaws already being realized in the I-35W Bridge.  Senators Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar have vowed to provide as much federal assistance and funding as possible to help in the recovery of the bridge collapse.  President Bush briefly spoke about the incident and suggested that congress pass laws providing additional funding to repair america's crumbling road infrastructure.  Many witnesses to the bridge collapse recall "We would drop, pause, drop, and then pause".  On August 3rd, 2007, $250 Million Dollars was approved for rebuilding the bridge and the cleanup.

Sources:

• CNN
  
• ABC News
  
• WCCO 4 NEWS
  
• 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS
  
• MY FOX 9
  
• KARE 11 NEWS

This is just amazingly terrible, i'm watching it on TV right now, I cant believe this has happened. The cars are floating in the freaking river!!!

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The Interstate 35W bridge, which spans between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was under construction when it broke into several huge sections.

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Why the hell was people on it then? There is another bridge right next to it

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Originally posted by Dazzy
Why the hell was people on it then? There is another bridge right next to it

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It was surface construction; Apparently, collapse isnt a danger with such construction, they dont believe it was caused by that.

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Originally posted by Dane
1 person has been confirmed dead.

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Now 3

It was also reported on the Hong Kongish News that a school bus pulled the last straw, and that the bus caused it to collapse.

Well the bridge is 40 years old, and 20 thousand cars use it daily, so it must have cause a lot of strain onto the bridge, and the construction equipment doesnt help.

@^%&!! whats with all these bridges collapsing recently?

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Originally posted by --Purity.
@^%&!! whats with all these bridges collapsing recently?

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Modern society is falling, the beggining of the end is near. Brace yourselves for the wrath of the almighty.

sad

Tis extremely crazy because my step dad went over the bridge two hours before the collapse. I'm glad that the death toll isn't extremely high.