Tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan, the 35W Bridge over the Mississippi River will re-open – months before schedule. It’s amazing what a multi-million dollar bonus will get you these days.
For those of us living in the 13-county area of the Twin Cities, this is a very big deal. Heck, for anyone who has to drive north and south through Minneapolis, it’s a big deal. Soon, traffic flow will be back to normal and we can all stop wasting gas by driving to heck and gone just to get anywhere.
However, although I am thrilled that I will be able to drive quickly from point A to point B, the advent of the new bridge is still bitter-sweet. People died or were grievously injured when the old one collapsed. The bridge can be re-built, but can their lives? Not always.
In remembrance of the people whose lives changed for ever in August of 2007, please let us know: Where were you when the bridge fell down?
10 Comments
I was on my way home from work and I kept getting phone calls to see if my husband was ok. He works road construction, so his out of town family and some of our friends were concerned that he might have been working in the area. Thankfully he was not!
South Dakota, in the Wind Cave. You called me and left a message on my cell phone, which is how I knew about it. Otherwise? El Jefe would have been driving that route on his way home from work had we not been on vacation.
At my Parents' in North Dakota. I went into town (the next day) to help my dad open the resturant and it was in the morning paper.
I had just pulled into the driveway with a couple of bags of Chinese food from Chan's in Brooklyn Park, when my wife Erin came out the front door of our house to tell me about the bridge collapse.
Needless to say, dinner was eaten in front of the television set that night, and we didn't really even taste the food. My aunt called all the way from Indiana to make sure we were all right, as I work in downtown Minneapolis and often used the old 35W bridge on supper breaks.
God bless everyone whose lives were taken or changed that day.
I was training a client in my basement and her husband was watching tv upstairs. He came down and told us and we didn't understand what he meant. He had to repeat it several times before we got it.
I lost my job that day, before the bridge fell. By the time I got to my city, I was leaving a store parking lot and turned on the car radio, wanting to hear the Twins. Needless to say, I heard the news. I thought, "So I lost my job. So??" That's nothing compared to those who lost their lives, and those who were injured and closely affected.
I was at a BBQ when I first heard about it. My brother was the first person I called since the bridge was the best way to get to his house. However, since there was construction, he was using another route.
But I did learn that my mom was working late, which rarely happens, and was 5 minutes ahead of the bridge collapsing. So I'm grateful that she missed it. And then my sister was also shipping out that day to Iraq, so the day is pretty unforgettable.
I was on my way to the Twins game. My wife and I decided to go through downtown instead of down 94, once we parked we heard dozens of sirens, I called my brother who was home to find out if something was on the news. That's how we found out. Needless to say, we were in absolute shock.
I got an email from a friend that evening with the subject "Oh My God" and a link to the front page of CNN.com.
My heart goes out to everyone who lost friends and family or was hurt.
My husband and I were watching something on TiVo, and we turned on live TV to watch the news. We saw these images of the bridge, and we had no idea where it was, just that it was awful. Then we realized it was in Minnesota, and we were shocked to learn that it was the 35W bridge, one that my husband crossed twice daily.
The scariest part is that it could have happened to any of us or anyone we knew, depending on the path you chose to take that day. There were so many stories of people who were on the bridge but normally wouldn't have been, or people who usually took that way but decided to go a different route.