Interstate Bridge Collapses In Minneapolis
By Jamie Tuesday Jul 31, 2007 8:38pm
From the AP:
The entire span of an interstate bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour Wednesday, sending vehicles, tons of concrete and twisted metal crashing into the water.
The Interstate 35W bridge, which stretches between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was in the midst of being repaired when it broke into several huge sections.
The Homeland Security Department had received no indications Wednesday night that the collapse was related to an act of terrorism, department spokesman Russ Knocke said in Washington.
"We continue to monitor the situation. At this time, there's no indication of a nexus to terrorism," Knocke said....read on
(emphasis added)
The part I highlighted doesn't seem to be sitting well with Malkin:
DHS issued a statement that the collapse “does not appear to be an act of terrorism.” Isn’t it too early to say anything meaningful about what it “appears” to be? Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?
It appears she is upset that a chance to play into fear has been squashed. True she could be right. Perhaps it is terrorism- the terrorism of our collapsing infrastructure.
John Amato: Jamie, I never noticed Malkin doing that before...cough...cough...
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The consequences of deregulation/privatization are coming home to roost.
Poor Malkin, no terrorgasm for her.
It's terrorism all right but of a different kind. It's the terrorism of spending a trillion dollars in Iraq killing people while the infrastructure of this country goes into the sink, literally.
After looking at the photos, it certainly does seem a bit strange that such a long span collapsed all at once. I was left a bit curious myself.
Shep Smith sounded disappointed.
it's only going to keep happening more and more often. in Montreal a chunk of an overpass collaped a while back.
first!
I heard a cement pouring outfit was getting sued millions the other day for delivering watered down concrete loads for large construction projects, (so the bastards could save money.)
It really is interesting. They talk so much about the Clinton Administration being weak on terrorism - and point to so many instances of terrorists acts during his admin. - so why is the same not true for bevy of infrastructure related disasters that have plagued us during the Bush era?
Think about it. These things are happening because this Republican government is not doing the job we pay them to do, from transportation to emergency management to energy to the FDA. All in an effort to deregulate industry.
Im slow on weed.
From Malkin's Blog:
Joshdavis @ 8:
But look at the profits!
I forgot to mention the mining disaster in W.V. that killed about 10 people (?) I think. The list is endless.
It's not terrorism. It's our f'ing infrastructure falling apart while we waste billions on a needless war. We are only a few years away from becoming the Soviet Union. One major city is gone. Which will be the next one?
Ouch.
I hope that everybody from Minneapolis, regular readers of this site and casual, is okay ...
Angela @ 4:
Everyone is an armchair civil engineer these days....
One major city is gone. Which will be the next one?
Whatever the next city is to get flooded over cause we didn't do anything about the polar ice caps.
Its skinflints not funding infrastructure!! Our non governing Govenor won't govern and the skinflints win!!
Lindy
Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?
No, because allowing unfounded rumors to circulate and frighten people would be a GOOD thing, apparently for Michelle.
Jeebus. She's so transparently EAGER for a terrorist attack. What a despicable person.
Same problem up here in Canada. We had a overpass fall apart in Montreal.
Thanks to Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his Know-Nothing, tax-hating supporters. If you want to live in a decent society, with a decent environment and decent infrastructure, you have to pay something for it. It's called being civilized. The Rethugs are cretins all.
@10
I pity her. It seems like all she has is fear and hatred.
Don't give up hope yet... they MAY find a link to terrorism, and might be able to use the "fear" card... maybe Rudy Giuliani will make a statement about this like, "this bridge collapse was not related to Al Qaeda, but it is the TYPE of thing they will do, and ONLY I CAN SAVE YOU FROM THEM..."
On both my visits to the USA, in 1984 and 1994, I was horrified by the state of many of the bridges I saw there. Here in Europe, no bridge would ever be allowed to deteriorate to that extent. But then, people's tax money here is spent on maintenance of the infrastructure, and the rich don't get tax cuts (except that Bush-clone Sarkozy has just granted a huge tax-cut to the very rich). I fear for the USA, and I fear for France.
"3 dead as Mississippi River bridge falls amid rush hour in Minneapolis"
"The Department of Homeland Security had no indication that terrorism played a role in the disaster, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, told CNN."
bd: But terrorism DID have a role in the disaster: BUSH MADE UP THE "WAR ON TERROR" AND TOOK 1 TRILLION OF OUR TAX DOLLARS AND SPENT IT IN IRAQ, INSTEAD OF HERE IN AMERICA WITH OUR AGING INFRASTRUCTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Republican, of course, brings up "terrorism", instead of tax dollars going towards Iraq!
FOX's Hitler Hannity with Marl Fuhrman insinuating that terrorists are involved in the bridge collapse is on the tube right now...
DHS issued a statement that the collapse “does not appear to be an act of terrorism.” Isn’t it too early to say anything meaningful about what it “appears” to be? Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?
Malkin's words are, by definition, terrroristic -- in-and-of themselves.
Well fix our highways...as soon as the Bush administration can figure out a way for his cronies to make $$$$$$$$$$$ off it!
The Freepers are already "conspiracy theorizing" that this was a result of a "controlled demolition"...Pajamahedeen Declare Terrorism Responsible
They have to make this a terror act, in order to continue justifying living in their Moms' basements, safe from the "big, baaadddd turrists"
Our infrastructure is collapsing.
Now there's another slab of concrete proof of terrorism right there. Clearly, genetically altered termites from Russia have been sold as biological weapons to Iraqi terrorist groups, then were smuggled across our unprotected borders by immigrants and have since been released by sleeper cells of underground lesbian gangs to wreak havoc on our supremely constructed steam pipes and highways, all villainously designed to-to... to make us feel bad about ourselves, or something. Well that's what i heard on Fox anyway.
this is what happens when you put conservative republicans in charge of crap. the basic stuff like roads and bridges don't even get taken care of.
Big Dan @ 24:
fight the boogeyman there, so we dont have to repair roads and stuff here...
The entire republican party is eager for an attack... Santorum, Guiliani...
But it goes without saying MM is terrorism's cheerleader. Rah, rah, rah!
I attended grad school at the U of M in the mid seventies. During that time I lived on University Ave SE and walked over this bridge almost every day either on my way to or from the west bank campus. At this time, the bridge had been closed to auto traffic because it had been in such poor repair that parts of it started falling onto barges passing beneath it. The Army Corps of Engineers, I think it was, condemned the bridge and ordered it rebuilt or repaired. Just before I left the city in the late 70's, the bridge was reopened. I'd say a repair on an interstate bridge that lasts 30 years or so, is a badly done repair. What a tragedy!!
thats nothing....What about our social security plan in the next 10-15 years?
We're doomed!!!
"Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?"
As opposed to releasing the wrong and misleading info and terrifying people?
I used to drive over that bridge every single day. I have friends who were heading home from work and were going to cross that bridge. This is scary stuff, but I seriously doubt it would be terrorism. More likely it was caused by a structural flaw, crack or something to do with the road work that was going on at the time.
To want this to be terrorism is completely sick.
Well, the thing is - if it fell down naturally it would look a lot different than if it blew up. I mean come on - I'm sure they had at least one person in the construction trade there that could say one way or the other with reasonable certainty.
You know, it's sad that she has to rush to such judgments though - apparently she has little faith in her commander in chief to protect us and our bridges. All I keep hearing is how we havent been attacked on US soil since September 11th 2001, and that it's because of the vigilance of the Republican party, yet a bridge collapses and Republicans run around screaming "Oh my god!!!!111 Terrorists!!!11".
Then again this is the same group of people who started screaming TERRORISM over an advertisement for a cartoon.
Dr. Matt @ 10:
Sweet Flippin' Jeeziz- who was it, Cathy Lee Gifford, foaming off about ":these people" meaning Muslims, when it was the homegrown version that perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing? What a shithead
I was wondering how long it would take for the 'this is what terrorists can do to us' crowd was going to adopt this.
Fuck. Them. Sideways.
It's been incredibly hot all week in the Twin Cities and work was being done on the bridge, which has a fairly old structural system. I'd say that the structure was stressed from freeway revisions and when one section of the structure failed and the rest buckled too. My sister takes a bus that crosses that bridge about that time of day so it's been a scary evening. She had come home early today but is pretty rattled. The whole city is in shock.
All of our tax dollars (nearly a trillion of them) are feeding the war machine and the BushCo empire.
Our infrastructure is simply falling apart, like our healthcare protection has fallen apart.
When's enough going to be enough? I suspect, never.
Spending billions over there, so we don't have it to spend here...
Privatize interstate road systems then limit the ability of the individual to sue corporations. Solved
Hate is Michelle Malkin's bread and butter. I am sure she has already completed the draft of a vitriolic column to be submitted to the New York Post tomorrow just in case it is confirmed as a terror attack. Trust me this is how their mind works. First the VT shootings ( remember Debbie Schussel then? ) and now the bridge collapse. It's really frustrating for them that the Muslims didn't do it. They are looking at the illegal immigrant ( construction crew ) angle at Freerepublic.
Just Me @ 40:
Exactly!
i live here in the twin cities.
there has been construction work on that bridge for awhile now.
im fairly certain that is was a bad accident. terror? come on!?
if terrorists did this then they are the kind that wear hockey helmets and drewl.
they managed to kill 3 people! wow good score!
Does terrorism include ignoring our infrastructure? Why don't we privatize a few more things and give some more tax cuts to the rich. We don't need no tax money. The market will take care of the interstates. meh
Malkin is a skank--who cares what she and her pals think. From the comments that I read, those clowns sound very disappointed that it wasn't a terrorist attack.
What a bunch of sick jerks.
Just this morning in our papers, (Massachusetts) it was reported that over 90% of the bridges in this state are in a state of severe disrepair.
OMG. What if God did it?
don't we pay Israel to demolish Lebanese bridges, pay for their reconstruction. ....then pay for their demolition........pay for their recon.......demo.......recon.....
I see there is a photo of the bridge on Google Earth with the title 'Mafia Bridge'. Is this a comment on the construction standards used when the bridge was built?
Not to be just a nother Parrot... but, could the nightly news and th enewspapers for once in their lives get a relvant quote from someone?
As in, "Officials at the budgetary office say the bridge construction should have been completed 20 years ago, but tax cuts and prioritizing remaining funds toward consturction of sports stadiums delayed the inrastructure repair until it was 'situation critical'."
We can dream of real news, can't we?
41 Miss Kitty,
You win the thread, everybody can go home now!!
How long before we find out that the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a "loyal Bushie" who's never had a driver's license and knows nothing about civil engineering, bureaucratic administration or vehicle safety standards but is nonetheless doing "a heckuva job?"
wonder if all guard/reserve support options are deployed in Iraq?
Jason,
If your scenario is actually true, I imagine we would hear about that.....tomorrow.
So, how is Karl Rove planning to use this to help Norm Coleman get re-elected?
Funny Bush doesn't mention Katrina, tornadoes, floods, collapsing bridges, northeast blackouts, exploding steam pipes, hurricane. His speaches and radio addresses are just all terror all the time. There is no profit from oil in the real disasters we face at home so the Bush -Cheney regime tries to scare and divert us with the with the ones that are happening, imagined and otherwise, half a word away. The "otherwise" being the real threats of terrorism he has made worse due to his Big Oil misadventure in the middle east.
For as many armchair civil engineers posting, there are just as many of you ruling out a controlled demolition as if you have evidence supporting that.
Noone knows what caused this. It could have been poor repair conditions, it could have been a controlled demo, it could have been a terrorist hit, but noone knows so noone can truthfully say at this point.
How about waiting a few days until the evidence can be collected, instead of labeling people with different ideas as "conspiracy theorists"?
It is extremely ironic that alot of people who are on the "far left" that post here, are just mirror images of the "far-right" crowd that they disdain so much. Already throwing out baseless accusations against those with different ideas, and already apparently "knowing" the reason of this bridge collapsing, in spite of the fact you have no evidence whatsoever to support your position.
Open your minds people, you have more in common with the Foxsnooze crowd than you even realize.
Immigrant @ 43:
Maybe Malkin was on that bridge? Hey, if Coulter can say she hopes Edwards gets killed in a terrorist attack, I'm just saying....
Ummmm,that 'bridge to nowhere' would come in handy now TED.
This IS Terrorism!!!
It's terrorism by George W. Bush and Co.
And the elite.
This is terrorism by neglect.
Impeach and remove Bu$h, DICK, Congress and the Supreme Court!!
a 40 year old bridge collapses..why?Maybe because of a lack of retrofitting?Lack of funding?yep.Their too busy spending funds on this illegal war in America...the war against Democracy.
Consumer @ 57:
Well said consumer. So many don't get that extremism is the problem and enemy and not the right, middle or left.
MSM fact checking misses again!
The bridge connects Minneapolis to Minneapolis.
The work they had been doing was solely to the deck of the bridge, and not the super structure.
well we just got back from a trip along the Oregon coast, and as Canadians, we were shocked at the state of the infrastructure....so this doesn't seem surprising.
MeMyselfAndI @ 15:
Seriously.
However, I myself, actually have a bachelor's degree in CE. ;)
If the pins holding bridge sections are weak, you can bet your damned ass that entire sections will drop out. This is exactly what happened in Connecticut over the Mianus River in 1983 because no one inspected the bridges in decades and the pins rotted out. Of course that was in a pre-9/11 world and no one was so goddamned fucking quick to jump on the terreriss/conspiracy bandwagon.
Man, even the Romans kept their country in better shape than us...
Span under repair collapses. Sounds like repair was put off too long. Perhaps due to tight budget?
Meanwhile DHS continues to justify it's budget...
It's Bill Clinton's fault.
Here's a link to the Mianus River Bridge disaster (Wiki). Yes... it only took one of those pin assemblies to rot and break to cause an entire collapse of the bridge section. When I tested steel and concrete stress while getting my CE degree, I saw what a catastrophic failure looks like from one part that broke. You don't need no terrorist, conspiracy theory, controlled explosion, or other dazzling bullshit that doesn't pass Occam's Razor to explain it.
Dr. Matt @ 10:
Malkin is a fear-mongering bigot. I live in St. Paul and travel this section of 35W frequently. It is a single span steel girder bridge, 40 years old. It is currently under-going reparis and maintenance. This IS a case of our crumbling infrastructure finally falling down and money that should be used to support our common systems is being sucked down the endless pit of death that is Iraq - how about the burst steam pipe in NYC and the nightmare that was "The Big Dig" in Boston?; a 2001 report on the bridge did say it had point of fatigue in its structure. I questions whether the people who inspected it were qualified, or cronies that Bush gave jobs to like his buddy "heckuva job Brownie." We don't know what happened yet. It could have been bad steel - we simply don't know. But, to even implicate the Muslim population of the Twin Cities is abhorrent and Malkin (and her ilk) should be yanked off the air by their hair.
Clinton's budget surplus could have repaired a lot bridges, steam pipes and levees.
Thanks to the "fiscally conservative" GOP, we no longer have to worry about that.
The homeland security report crap was totally unnecessary. The f-ing bridge fell down because of Americans would rather spend their tax dollars bombing Iraqis instead of fixing their bridges and schools etc. Don't blame Clinton, blame Reagan. Why do Republicans hate America?
The other thing you get a glimpse of by statements like Malkin's is how perversely and irrationally she views the world.
There's this great tool for thinking called "Occam's Razor": All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.
Take your xanax and think about it for a sec, Michelle... deliberate acts of sabotage and terrorism are extremely rare in most parts of the world, including Minnesota. Human error and/or the natural toll of time on heavily used systems like highways, bridges, levees, hell, your shoelaces for that matter, etc. on the other hand are very common. It's terrible and it's sad but it's explainable and probably preventable.
Anybody who's instinct is to hit the panic button and put terrorism into play in this kind of situation is either paranoiac and lives in vague constant fear, or is trying to stir shit up, or both.
I'll put Malkin down for "both"
Boy, I'm glad I'm not one of those paranoid right-wing conservative fear mongers that jumps every time someone says "boo!"
My immediate reaction to then news wasn't "was it terrorism?" It was more like "must of been some sort of structural failure."
If Malkin had any sense of intelligence she would know that many Interstate bridges are reaching their lifespans or are close or exceeding their daily load capacities and many are in need of both cosmetic and structural repair. It's a big issue in the US right now. Plus bridges who have columns in moving streams are susceptible to movement of sediment and erosion around their footings.
Terrorism is the last thing that should come to mind.
These fools are just looking for an excuse for terrorists to strike. It sounds like she is dissapointed. They actually sound like they want us to be attacked. That's ass-backwards thinking. They want us to be harmed to prove a paranoid point. Arghh!
We continue to monitor the situation. At this time, there's no indication of a nexus to terrorism," Knocke said.
I swear if I hear "nexus" one more time... What they're really saying is that they can't link it to al qaeda. And if they tried then even an idiot would know they were full of it.
nexus != link.
First, my heart and prayers go out to the people who were killed or injured by this, as well as their friends and relatives. However, not terrorism? Sorry, I'll reserve my conclusions on that.
Are we missing the point that Minneapolis is the site of the 2008 GOP convention? Boy, will this get a lot of play on that!
lewisnclark @ 73:
THAT'S Occam's razor. No wonder the convenience store clerk look so bewildered when I brought by my Mach III razors back to switch with the Occams razor. I thought it was a better blade. Boy is my face red.
"Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?" Doesn't anyone else here find this Malkinism deliciously ironic. If she adhered to this standard herself the world would be a better and much quieter place.
An Average Joe @ 76:
The GOP convenstion is in St. Paul, not Minneapolis.
An Average Joe @ 76:
I thought the Republican convention was going to be in Tehran with the other religious zealots.
use of road salt in the winter speeds the corrosion. roads and bridges in cold weather
states don't last as long as they do in warmer climes.
I don't think this is really the time and place to make a political point. I think either the right or the left trying to make political hay out of this before all the bodies have even been recovered is loathsome.
I just hope the death total doesn't mount much from the current count of 6. I have driven over that bridge thousands of times during my time in college and I cannot really fathom what happened.
But this might be the time to keep those affected in your thoughts as opposed to worrying about Malkin or any other idiots who would try to exploit this for their own gain. There will be plenty of time to dissect their responses later.
pussy_galore @ 38:
Reich-wingers already blaming Muslims....f*cking disgusting.
Blue Buddha @ 65:
Thanks Blue. Gosh, I didn't mean to sound anything like people imagined! All I said was that it seemed strange to me and I was curious and suddenly people think I'm on Malkin's side? I'm a scientist, but a biologist, so I just didn't know if this was a possible outcome of neglect. Thank you Blue for convincing me that it is. I was in Oakland when the quake brought down sections of the bridge and freeway, but that was a big quake! People, please don't be so quick to judge others for comments in a blog. They can so easily be taken out of context. I hate the terrorist fear mongering as much as anyone here and refuse to let it get to me myself.
libsechumanist @ 79:
Actually it is being shared by both cities. I wish it was somewhere other than my town. It will suck.
Eyewitnesses to the collapse said that there was no explosion before the bridge collapsed, it just dropped. I think that the folks here who are deriding us for not viewing this as terrorism are somehow hoping that this is terrorism in order to justify their paranoid world view. If you want it to be terrorism, just turn it into a 'straw man' argument about this being what terrorist can do to us, then go back to hiding in your basements. Get your paranoia away from me.
Trying to cover things locally here.
holy cannoli, our country is literally falling apart at the seams, and there isn't a thing being down about it.
Big Dig disaster last year. That was terrorists. Right?
I finally figured out which bridge this is. At first I thought it was the 35w bridge going over Black Dog Lake between Burnsville and Bloomington (but that bridge is a lot higher), but I finally figured out it's the section which is a major cross over between downtown Mpls and U of M or on your way to N. St. Paul.
I grew up there, but haven't been there for 20 years. I'm shocked to say the least.
Thing Fish @ 67: The bridge wasn't under repairs, the roadway on the bridge was. In other words they weren't doing structural work, they were doing road work. There are 2 seasons in MN, Winter and Road Repair....
If they haven't cleaned up the river in the last 20 years, the survivors who fell into the water are going to have to be treated for Hepatitis and other potential toxins/diseases. That section of the river was notoriously polluted, but again, this was 20-25 years ago.
As anyone checked to see if Rush Limpballs and Jonah Goldberg were going over the bridge in Rush's Escalade. That could have done it.
#14. Thanks. It's too bad I had to get that far before anyone expressed any sympathy at all. It's C&L. I would have expected better. To all of you who, later, managed to express human emotion, rather than simple ideology...I apologize. Priorities, people. This is not political. It's still quite possible that 1 or more of the people I care about are dead. Get over yourselves.
tr @ 81:
this makes sense....dollars to doghnuts says this will be the reason for the collapse......wasn't OBL seen there 3 years ago spreading salt(snark)I would expect booosh to say that it was terrorism.BOOOOO
Northeast blackout, 911, Katrina, steam pipe explosions, bridges collapsing...if all this happened when Clinton was in office Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson would have said its Gods punishment on America for electing a morally bankrupt godless presidential administration and that we have strayed from the path of the lord.
I live about two miles from the bridge. I talked to a few people that were in the area when it collapsed and they said they heard a low rumble, saw some dust rise from under the bridge, and then it fell into the water. There was no report of any explosion. The civil engineers they have had on on our local news have stated that