Bridge falls into Mississippi river
 

Wow, just wow. This is awful.

That's terrible. What's with all the bridge collapses lately? I've heard of two bridge collapses here in California this year. Those incidents were caused by vehicles hitting one support on each bridge though so they're not spontaneous collapses, but still.

I was watching this--the last report I saw stated that 7 people were confirmed dead. One side of the bridge looks like it did a "see-saw" thing: one side went down, the other side went up, snapping away from the rest of the bridge and staying at a 45 degree angle. Part of the bridge went straight down into the water, and the rest on the other side is twisted a little with the sections apart.

A lot of the witness reports say the same thing about a "rumbling" noise.

The fact that anyone was able to get out in bumper to bumper traffic is amazing.

Slow News Week

I don't care how callous that makes me sound, but it's the truth.

"We're keeping you updated on this disaster"

2 hours later...

"Bridge still in river."

Got a great gaff from Keith Olberman calling it a "good disaster," though.

I saw the NBC interruption bearing this news. It was naturally shocking and I felt poorly for the victims, but the voiceover person said something that gave me a bit of a "WTF" moment.

He said, "We've spoken with a representative from the Department of Homeland Security and they do not believe that this was an act of terrorism."

And why would it be? A bridge collapsing is a plausibly domestic problem. In fact, the possibility of terrorism hadn't occurred to me - or anyone in the room - until that nimrod said anything. The comment felt more like a quick grab at sensationalism than anything else.

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,933541,00.jpg

I was like, wow, did Michael Bay decide to go to Minnesota for the extended version of Transformers? But yeah, this looks pretty gross, I bet some people thought of a possible terrorist attack

When I first read about this story, I was shocked that the only mention about fatalities was that one body being pulled from the river in a blue sheet. I mean, I was expecting "Possibly hundreds dead, many injured", yet all there was about deaths was that one little body. Not that I want to hear about the deaths, but seriously.

Yet the 'act of terrorism' bullshit was mentioned at least twice in the same article. "Dont worry folks, we're not sure how many people have lost their lives, but we have confirmed that this was NOT an act of terrorism. All is well."

Actually, uhhh. Back right after 9/11 'round these parts, they had both state troopers and the guard out by the major bridges and water supplies.

The national guards literally carried big guns and were OMNIOUS looking. Usually, people went for walks over some of the dams and around the reservoir. They were no longer allowed to, thanks to scary people with guns.

Of course, after 9/11 kind of fell into the cobwebs of most peoples' minds, this hype died down.

I saw the news and I was thinking "Huh. If I was a terrorist, thats not how I would terrorize the nation." But it did cross my mind in a kind of humorous moment, which I shouldn't have had.

You have to admit, though. It LOOKS cool.

Well, apparently, if it HAD BEEN a terrorist attack, they would have done a good job in terrorizing the US automobile industry and thus the powerful US economy in general. I mean, just look at that, some of the cars fell off the fucking bridge when it collapsed. That's definitely a deficiency.

I guess my point is that it's not healthy for a nation's first response to calamity to be one of suspicion and cultural animosity. The proper response is "What a shame.", not "Which cowardly bunch of sand-niggers did it this time?"

It's been a reasonable amount of time since 9/11, but the damned news media just won't let the people heal. Even mentioning terrorism still stirs the pot of fear and intolerance. That's what bothers me about the coverage.

I like the idea that Homeland Security had to make sure to inform us that terrorists didn't attack Minnesota.

"Yeah, we thought about attacking Washington or NYC or Boston or Philly or LA or Dallas but we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to get those fuckers who drive across bridges in Minneapolis."

My mom actually wondered if it was a terrorist attack....First words out of her mouth, actually.

I, on the other hand, thought--"How the FUCK did that happen?"

Very sad to hear. And very concerning as well. I mean, people are already uneasy with bridges, and yet things like this happen.

I'd be more inclined to agree with you if there were a series of bridge collapses all over the country. Otherwise, there are so many bridges in this country that don't collapse on any given day, and especially ones that are used more frequently, whether because of failed engineering, a lack of structural integrity or terrorism, and I would be hard pressed to worry about them collapsing underneath me. Even if there was terrorism involved, I still wouldn't worry too much. See also: air travel

Video of the bridge collapse:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/08/02...ew#cnnSTCVideo

Fucked up thinking I was on that bridge two hours before it happened :/. Luckily I didn't know anybody on it. I feel terrible for anyone who was.

Considering road construction has already been a huge problem for the Twin Cities and surrounding areas, traffic is now going to be at a level beyond hell for the next couple of months...

The plane crash in Brazil a few weeks ago didn't float to the top of headlines for long at all (200+ people dead I think). Why? That wasn't a slow news week. Just like Brady said. Pardon me for being cold-and-detached.

Crash --
lol. I said the same thing in gfchat regarding knee-jerk "terrorism" stuff.

"Crap. I dropped my keys. TERRIZM! :gonk:"

Not really, and not really. I know it's a tragedy, but seven people is a lot better than it could have been. Frankly, I was surprised it wasn't much more.

And, really, how is this concerning in the least? One bridge collapse shouldn't be enough to shake your confidence when there are thousands of bridges operating perfectly fine every single day. And that's just in Pittsburgh.

Yeah, we were all in chat yesterday afternoon basically blaming the terrorist attack on the bridge on me, so... yeah...

I feel bad for whoever happened to be on that bridge and all but really people... NO TERRORISTS WERE INVOLVED. As Dull pointed out yesterday with a nice visual aid: The truss just failed as flimsily as melting butter. It was either shoddy engineering (most likely) or the culmination of 40 years of weather fluctuations from bitter cold winters to hot-as-fuck summers. (far-fetched but still theoretically possible)

In any case, my hopes go out to finding survivors.
http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....ages/ace/1.gif

What a terrible mess. I can only hope that this will begin a series of improvement projects to make sure that other bridges around the country don't suffer the same fate (After all, out of tragedy there is always a good side, and the media tends to have 'Now with STRUCTURE X's demise/collapse, how can we protect STRUCTURES W, Y AND Z?").

It's a sad state of affairs, that. The people have been told to constantly worry about "attacks on America." You never know what they're going to do next! Live in worry! Live in fear of those attacks. Are you kidding me.

The only reason I thought of terrorism (and subsequently wondered if other bridges would fall) is because the bridge crossed the Mississippi. I was thinking maybe other bridges would fall from north to south in a nice line-up.

But that's mostly because I love drama, so.

Ence, it's an extremely rare thing to happen. It's happened before, sure. But considering all the bridges in the US that we pass over without even thinking out it, it's not a very regular kind of incident.

Weather conditions I doubt had anything to do with it, though. Fluctuations in seasonal temperatures would be considered in the engineering of a bridge in Minnesota (or anywhere else with vast differences in season temps/conditions).

I'm willing to put $10 on shore erosion.

Yeah, no kidding. I go to the University of Minnesota, which is about 3 blocks from this bridge. I used to cross it all the time when I would go home on weekends. The exit I take to get to school is University Avenue, which is the last exit before the bridge. This is going to make getting to school a bad experience.

It's funny, because when you break down the word "terrorism", it's the act of instilling fear.

Pardon the cliche`, but methinks the terrorists have won =o

BACK AWN TOPIC~

Edit:: lolol. Thanks Capo :O Like I said, I only saw occasional blurbs and haven't paid much mind to the story. I thought this was IN Mississippi, not ON the Mississippi. Disregard what I had here =o

Where exactly is any salt water coming from? Freshwater lakes and rivers feed into the Mississippi.

I would argue that it is not the nation's first response towards a catastrophe of this magnitude. However, it would be Homeland Security's first response, and their job is to make sure everyone knows that they're working so they talk about what isn't terrorism a lot.

I mean, the nation can do several things at once. It's pretty big.

Additional Spam:
you all know that that isn't seven people dead, that's seven people confirmed dead, right? There's a couple of dozen people left unaccounted for and probably dead.

Yes, I know it's 1/100th of a 9/11 and thus unworthy of taking up more time than, say, the loss of Paris Hilton's inheritance, but can we keep the jaded musings of an entertainment-news industrial complex gone mad with stupid news stories that only affect white people to at minimum two or three days after the event? Jesus christ.

Additional Spam:
I'm not an engineer, but I imagine that an interstate bridge constructed with shoddy engineering would not have stood for forty years and, even recently, did not show any signs of significant structural damage. But I did hear that it was deemed structurally deficient a few years back, I'm not saying it's superbridge or wasn't in need of repairs.

Looks like I was right:

http://www.yahoo.com/s/135782/*http:.../bridge_safety

Heh.

So:

1) A study is released in 2002 saying 30% of bridges, about 7,000, are in trouble.

2) In the 5-10 years since the 20,000+ bridges are looked at (I'd assume it would take a couple of years to produce), none fall down involving a fatality (there was one in SF a couple years ago, but that was because a truck exploded).

3) One bridge involving fatalities collapses 5 years after the study is released.

4) Congress goes apeshit, opening up the wallet. To pay to do what? Yeah, that's right: study all the bridges again!

5) In 2009 or 2010, when the study is complete, most people will have forgotten about Minnesota, meaning Congress does not release more funds to actually fix the bridges...just like after the 2002 study.

6) ???

7) Profit!!!

It's especially stupid since inspections of every bridge interstate bridge in the nation (maybe all bridges period, I forget) are federally mandated to occur at least every 2 years. So it's not like the 20,000 have been ignored.

I'm wondering if any of the people who were injured because of this whole fiasco are going to try and sue.

Sue for what? Fuck, who would you even sue?

Nobody is responsible for this happening. Nobody could have guessed that it would have happened.

That's why they call it a "freak accident."

State Department of Transportation, Fed DoT, the original manufacturers of the bridge, the people working on the upgrades...it'll be class-action and they'll sue everyone to get all the documents they can before narrowing it down to one.

For example: if it's true that "they" knew the bridge had problems since 1990 and they still hadn't upgraded it by 2007, that certainly could be a valid lawsuit.

Not really. Our Highway divisions are terribly underfunded. Maintenance schedules are quite regular and the most critical stuff is done first. This accident was a fluke, not something predictable.

Also, you forget: If they DID shut the bridge down for a few months to repair it, people would've bitched then too. These people are unsatistfiable.

I just like how everyone expects that the infrastructure will somehow maintain itself. Maybe it's because the overpasses in my state are crumbling from under me and my state's senate is uninterested in collecting enough taxes in order to maintain our (pithy) quality of life, but I can certainly see more bridges collapsing in ten or twenty years.

No, seriously. Michigan decided that, in order to balance its budget without raising taxes (although everyone says that a tax raise will be inevitable next year), we decided to hold off on paying certain bills. You know your dotty relatives who're always down on their luck and live from paycheck to paycheck? My state is taking its financing cues from them.

threatening to lower our credit rating, and then doing so, didn't make them raise taxes

it's almost like they want us to leave or something

You're being, whatchacallit, ironic, right?

Yeah, no one could have foreseen the collapse of the

oh hee hee hee :tpg:

http://www.theatlantic.com/images/is.../brigesbig.jpg
http://www.theatlantic.com/images/is.../bridgekey.jpg

I didn't say it was logical, I just said there probably is a valid lawsuit in there.

I'm not too sure, but isn't it the state that forsee's all road and bridge repair and evaluation?

If it isn't and the people of Minnesota sued the state, wouldn't they effectively be suing themselves? Again, that's only going off of if the state is responsible for evaluating bridges and roads and fixing them.

The work is usually done by private contractors overseen and assigned by the state paid with federal funds. It's a convoluted system, but there are purposes for all of it.

Wow, all of New York is in the RED in that picture. That's kinda sad. That bottom left one for Michigan that's red... that where I am.

Though on a note of them fixing bridges, there's a bridge on I-196 that they're really working on fixing up. And last year there was one on I-94 they fixed up and widened... It's just amazing to think of how much more there is to do.

Still... the other day was such a tragedy. I read an article today concerning it and how some of the missing included a pregnant mother and her two year old daughter... it's just heartbreaking. I can't imagine what it must've been like.

Given the number of high-profile bridges in this country (many build around the same time as this one) and the amount of time the government has not been properly funding its infrastructure this was bound to happen at some time or another. As usual, state/federal government will only now start taking action to rectify this after there has been a huge failure resulting in loss of life. Granted, this was probably the result of several factors coming together at the wrong time, but it should be no excuse to prevent this problem from increasing.

I think many of those in power should start feeling quite guilty for funneling most of our budget into the Military/National Defense, without thinking about the state of their own country (roads/health care/education, etc).

Jammer: In Michigan, it's understandable, though. With the lakes as they are, we go through weather cycles of freeze/thaw that wear our roads faster than any other state out there, bar none. It's near-impossible to keep stuff properly maintained here. My father works rather high up in bridge design for the state, and it's a constant battle to be able to get done what needs to with the limited funds available (especially since the Senate seems to be of the "refuse to do anything and blame it all on Granholm" camp)

Haha, I hear you there. It's a never-ending battle with that stuff. I remember back when I was in high school, the school buses weren't supposed to cross the bridge going out of town, as that side of the bridge was deemed unsafe. It's since been fixed, but it did make me worry a little at the time.

I think the most frustrating thing aside from limited funding is also that the workers repairing the bridges and road systems can only work so fast. It's going to take a long time to get things up to code.

lol mi republican senate

what's New York's excuse though, I thought they were all dems.

I saw this on the news today (news are always some days delayed in Germany)

I noticed there was a man called "Tim Pawlenty", I guess he's the governor

http://www.stillwater.k12.mn.us/sb/s..._on_pawlty.htm

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA... fin.

Corruption crosses boundaries?

They're probably dipping into Highway funds to pay for pet projects.

Lies. Rainbows and love shoot out of democrats asses.

http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....ages/ace/1.gif

I wonder if she'll be asked about the bridges?

If that happened to the Eugene Talmage bridge over here in Savannah, our port industry would be fucked over and a lot of people WOULD be dead.

Thankfully that bridge wasn't the same length/height and a lot of people didn't get hurt.

It's a shame they can't manage to shoot out some goddamn money instead. Then we might be able to fund this shit.

Good news is, if you want to be safe from bridge collapse, move to Arizona. Their bridges are all great!

Oh wait.

hm.. I'mma a local so I hear this all over the local news. I was kinda expecting it fall any day now anyways.. I really am sorry for the lost lives though.

Why exactly were you expecting it to fall "any day now?" Unless you had some sort of inside information that was unknown to government inspectors, there is no way that you or anyone else could have predicted this. I am also a local, who happened to drive across this bridge one in a while, and I never had any inclination that it was about to fall.

Also, I find your attempt at sympathy ironic and meaningless considering what is written in your sig.

Cloudkiller is just the kind of edgy know-it-all we need around here!

http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....ages/ace/1.gif