A year ago today, the bridge collapsed...

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the 35W Bridge Collapse.

I can't believe it's been one year already. The end of May, I was in Minneapolis and made a point to go down near the construction area, took pictures, marveled at the speed in which the new bridge is being rebuilt.

Seeing the construction workers' vehicles parked under the signs directing traffic to Hiawatha Avenue was eerie.

I still find myself taking an involuntary breath when I cross a bridge over water now. I can't help it. A local gal had just crossed the bridge when she saw the bridge crumble from her rear-view mirror. Another neighbor was across it about three hours before the tragedy. While I drove across the bridge hundreds - thousands of times over the years, it wasn't a common drive for me anymore - but I did cross it a couple days before it collapsed.

While the rest of the world has moved on, and most likely even forgotten, this has changed Minnesota forever and today is our day to remember.

 

Having dropped my brother off at Detroit Metro Airport four hours before Flight 255 crashed, I understand the eerieness.

 

News Gems has a collection of related stories:
http://spj.org/blog/blogs/newsgems/archive/2008/07/30/21214.aspx

 

I flew into Minneapolis today, and coming down one of the first things that caught my eye was a bridge...so naturally, I thought of the collapse. Horrible, horrible tragedy.

 

A couple of the pics I took the end of May:

 

When do they hope to have the new bridge open?

 

The original plans were by Christmas 2008.

Now, with construction moving so quickly, it's looking like it may be open in two more months.

 

About a month ago I was talking with a couple of Twins players and they weren't 100 percent comfortable with the speed with which the bridge is being built, hoping the work was being done well in addition to speedily.

 

An old colleague of mine was on the bridge when it collapsed. He's spent much of the past year recovering, but is now less than 10 days from getting married... his story, obviously, turned out better than others.

I found a pic of his car from AP (or maybe it was the Strib); it's long been removed, but I'll never forget the image. The car was kind of half-submerged and - from that angle - there weren't any other cars around. Just rubble, water and rescue workers trying to get to my friend. I'm glad they did.

 

I remember that one security camera image of the bridge collapsing. Just horrifying.

 

There's a lot of concern about that. I would think MnDOT would be inspecting every centimeter as the bridge is being built.