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I-35 Bridge Photos:

One of my nephews is 20 years old and has a life long friend who is the same age. Recently his friend was told that in the near future he would have no choice but to have his leg amputated at mid thigh. He can postpone the procedure for a while, but the pain which is one the symptoms will continually increase until it becomes unbearable.


I don't have any real problems in my life. Not one.

GW - I don't have any either!

I have been watching reports of this on the news, its so surreal like somthing you would see happen in a movie. My heart goes out to all who are effected by this tragedy.

...quick story.
Minneapolis is one of my regular visits for work. I checked in with a couple of accounts and pals up there, just to be sure. One was a very old friend and strong business ally, Joette.
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Joette had taken 1/2 day off of work to go to a vendor golf outing. It required her to cross the bridge to get there earlier in the day. It would require the same on the flip-trip. Because of the heat, she got ill and left the outing early. On the way back home, she had to pull over to release lunch. This burned a few minutes that would come back as a blessing. She said that she got to the bridge and hit the brick wall of traffic. She had no idea what was going on. She was at the very last exit to get off into downtown Minny and she wasn't in the mood to wait for the bridge traffic, so she called her husband to ask him if he could guide her thru downtown to avoid the jam on the freeway. Shortly thereafter, during his guided tour, he picked up the catastrophic news and told Joette. She knew something was up because the entire downtown was a flood of sirens from all directions, sherriff's police pulling boats thru the traffic like madmen.
Anyway, I asked her how her time of arrival at the bridge compared to the time of the collapse. She thought that she hit the backup at the bridge 5 minutes after it happened. After we talked a few minutes, I asked her if there was any oncoming traffic when she got there. She thought a moment and said "OMG, yes. There was and then it stopped". Then I asked her how far the exit is from the bridge. She put down the phone and asked somebody in her office; I heard "about a good city block".
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...losin' lunch on the road has it's upside, I reckon.

It is all so surreal to see what has happened. I watched that bridge, and a number of others in Minnesota and Wisconsin, being built during that time. As I'm sure it is for thousands of others, that is the "new bridge" between the "cities."

As a little kid, I knew that part of Minneapolis as the seedy end of town. We'd arrive at the Great Northern Railway Station aboard the Gopher. Pawn shops, bars, and fortune tellers stretched from Plymouth Ave. down to the area of the new bridge.

I remember the first time, and many times after that, that we went to Twins games in the new Metrodome. It was incredible how fast we got out of the stadium parking lot, and were heading across the river, on our trek towards Duluth on I35W north. I don't think any other major stadium in the country could empty their parking lots as fast -- and that bridge was part of that efficiency.

Both sides of the river have seen an incredible economic revival since that bridge was built. Let's hope some regional and national good can come from this awful tragedy.