35W bridge collapse survivor marks 5th anniversary
16 replies, posted
[quote=KARE]MINNEAPOLIS - We all remember where we were when the 35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River five years ago. Those of us who watched the images can now use those years to distance ourselves from the pain we felt that day, but for those who lived it, it's a very different story.
"It's surreal," says Justin Mishler as he points to his name carved in the memorial wall that now stands over the river.
Justin still after all these years finds it hard to believe that he was a part of what happened that day. He was on his way home from work when he just nearly made it to the north side of the span.
"I hung up my phone and I threw it in the cup holder and almost immediately, the bridge began to shake," he recalls.
He survived the collapse with a compression fracture as a physical reminder, but it's not the thing that sticks with him. Justin, a normally positive guy, was for the first time in his life, hit hard with the emotions of what he'd been through. He suffered from PTSD, depression and still struggles with survivor's guilt.
"I feel horribly guilty that I'm able to enjoy my life, while so many others are coming down here and looking at a pillar rather than spending it with their family, and I think that's unfortunate," he says.
He says it doesn't get to him all the time, but it's certainly worse around the anniversary. And, he says, small things can make him sad or reflective, such as the hot weather we've been having since it was similar to the day of the collapse.
He's not one to go to all the ceremonies but does take the day off every year to spend it with his wife. He says he does it not only to be thankful for what he has but to honor what was taken away from 13 others.
"I almost exited on 3rd street to go to the Town Hall Brewery and I didn't. So, every year we cherish life and take a trip to the Town Hall Brewery and have lunch and enjoy our time together," he says getting choked up.
Mishler says he plans to mark the occasion, in his way, every year for himself and those no longer with us.[/quote]
Damn, I remember trying to call my cousin but all the phone lines were down :(. [url=http://www.kare11.com/news/article/985256/391/35W-bridge-survivor-marks-5-year-anniversary]Source[/url]
Sorry for posting so quickly, but this even is really big for a small state.
[img]http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/uploads/minnesota_bridge.jpg[/img]
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[img]http://www.metrocouncil.org/directions/transit/transit2007/BridgeCollapseAug07.jpg[/img]
[img]http://images.publicradio.org/content/2007/08/04/20070804_bush_bus_2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2007/minneapolis_bridge/minneapolis_bridge_04.jpgl[/img]
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[url=http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2007/minneapolis_bridge/minneapolis_bridge_06.jpg]Just in case someone is squemish of blood[/url]
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:(
I remember when this was all over the news. Nobody really thought that an infrastructural failure of that magnitude could ever happen here in the United States because of all of our rules and regulations, and yet either something unpredictable happened or someone dropped the ball.
I remember when that had happened. I had driven over that 3 hours before while driving to a job site for work. My dad had gone over it not even an hour or so earlier on his way home from work. Shit was crazy.
[QUOTE=ewitwins;37045348]I remember when this was all over the news. Nobody really thought that an infrastructural failure of that magnitude could ever happen here in the United States because of all of our rules and regulations, and yet either something unpredictable happened or someone dropped the ball.[/QUOTE]
The US is actually really at risk. We are so fucking big and we have tons of bigger things to focus on (most of the west coast does not have any earthquake shielding, so when the San Andreas fault goes off, the Cascadia earthquakes would look like child's play) I remember reading a study that said every year there is about five percent more of a chance that a major bridge will collapse.
[QUOTE=ThePinkPanzer;37045431]The US is actually really at risk. We are so fucking big and we have tons of bigger things to focus on (most of the west coast does not have any earthquake shielding, so when the San Andreas fault goes off, the Cascadia earthquakes would look like child's play) I remember reading a study that said every year there is about five percent more of a chance that a major bridge will collapse.[/QUOTE]
Right now everyone has there eyes on the tappenzee, It's constantly under repairs and maitence every day to keep it structually intact. I used to drive across it every day back and forth from work. I still go across it atleast one or twice a month.
[QUOTE=CubeManv2;37045496]Right now everyone has there eyes on the tappenzee, It's constantly under repairs and maitence every day to keep it structually intact. I used to drive across it every day back and forth from work. I still go across it atleast one or twice a month.[/QUOTE]They are trying to hammer out a [url=http://www.tzbsite.com/tzbsite_2/index_2.html]replacement[/url] [url=http://www.newnybridge.com/]bridge[/url] but its facing a lot of budget problems. Originally it was going to have a rail line and a Bus/Hov lane but now those being put off as a "future addition" to keep initial costs and construction time lower.
When they build a lot of these bridges in the 50's and 60's they weren't really made to last more than fifty odd years or so. I think the idea was that construction would be cheap as ever in the future and replacing these bridges would be no issue. Unfortunately that's not how it turned out, especially since the federal government dropped the interstate system onto the states' backs.
[QUOTE=ice445;37045703]When they build a lot of these bridges in the 50's and 60's they weren't really made to last more than fifty odd years or so. I think the idea was that construction would be cheap as ever in the future and replacing these bridges would be no issue. Unfortunately that's not how it turned out, especially since the federal government dropped the interstate system onto the states' backs.[/QUOTE]
I know one of the bridges in New York wasn't meant to last for more than ~25 years.
It's now 50-70 years old.
[QUOTE=CubeManv2;37045496]Right now everyone has there eyes on the tappenzee, It's constantly under repairs and maitence every day to keep it structually intact. I used to drive across it every day back and forth from work. I still go across it atleast one or twice a month.[/QUOTE]
that one I think?
I remember when this happened. I was on a family trip up north to a cabin. The cabin was 3 hours or so north of Minneapolis. We were out on a boat, and as we pulled in to a dock, I got a phone call from my dad who lived slightly outside of the city, asking if we were okay, then if we heard the news, et cetera. We had no idea what was going on. We got back to the cabin and turned on the TV. The bridge collapse was all that was broadcast for the next few days. What caused it. Who got hurt. Who died. Who just barely escaped the clutches of the bridge before it fell. The camera footage of the collapse from the nearby lock and dam.
If I wasn't on that cabin trip, I may have been on the bridge around the time it collapse. I passed over it quite a bit.
Well, anyways, at least now we have a new bridge with weird concrete bacon sculptures on it that are apparently absorbent with pollution.
I saw what had happened on one of the Minneapolis TV stations (yay cable, otherwise I can't because I'm a Canadian) and remember seeing one of the news choppers' (likely KARE11's) views of the destruction. Just goes to show that even if you make something top-notch, there'll always be a breaking point.
Sadly its a possibility that this might happen again in Minnesota with the state of our infrastructure and its funding, its a huge stretch to make sure every road gets the repairs it needs. Hell where so stretched for money out capital building is dropping chunks of stone on the floor now and then.
Christ that is like something out of a disaster movie. I could only imagine the horrible fear you would feel as you see cars, semis, and trucks, along with road disappear as it races toward you.
13 people died. That's terrible, but it could've ended a [I]lot[/I] worse so there's something to be thankful of.
A schoolbus almost fell, that might've killed 63 children and the driver. Instead it ended up balancing on the edge.
Kind of a major fear of mine, even if it's irrational. Always seems to be in the back of my mind when going over any bridge.
Every time I see this it just scares me. Here in my town, we have one of the worst bridges in America that crosses the Mississippi. It's had emergency repairs a few times. There are even chunks of the concrete missing that you can see straight down. Every single year it goes under construction and it seems it isn't getting any better. There are 4 bridges total within 30 minutes of eachother, this one is dead center with constant heavy traffic. I think of this incident every time I cross it wondering when it will finally go as well...
