No Terrorism Believed In 35W Freeway Bridge Collapse, Minneapolis, MN
The major freeway bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 8th, 2007 is not believed to be a terrorist attack at this time.
Right now, reports are that there are seven people dead, with more bodies surely to be recovered when daylight begins. Cars, trucks, even construction workers working on the bridge all plunged into the river. A freight train passing under the bridge was crushed by concrete from the bridge deck.
I used to drive over this bridge everyday. I can’t say that I’m surprised that it collapsed. When you were stuck in traffic on the bridge in the exit lane to downtown Minneapolis or the University of Minnesota, you could feel the bridge shake when trucks passed in other lanes. It was scary! The bridge looked as if it were supported by toothpicks. The steel support structure didn’t look very impressive, especially when compared to other bridges in the area.
There is a system to spray ice-melting chemicals on the bridge deck during the winter. I’m wondering if it is possible that these ice melting chemicals could have helped corrode the metal support structure contributing to the collapse.
In Minnesota, Democrats have been fighting to raise all sorts of taxes. As part of their transportation tax increases of 2007, they wanted to hit an average family of four with $550 in additional taxes each year (not including the other tax increases sought by the DFL). These tax increases were vetoed by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty.
I was watching the news coverage when someone whom I think was the former transportation director was insinuating that it was a lack of transportation spending that was to blame for the bridge collapse. Democrats will surely use this catastrophe as yet another excuse to raise taxes on working Americans.
Democrats are shameless thieves…and liars…and frauds…and hypocrites…
Local news stations with coverage:
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:30 am
I was en route to my night job when I noticed all the emergency vehicles going into Mpls. I tuned into the radio and got the breaking news of the bridge collapse. Call me gun-shy, but I immediately thought terrorism and throughout the night I listened to updates on the radio.
One radio program reported within the first hour that the Dept of Homeland Security had already concluded the bridge collapse was NOT caused by an act of terrorism. I asked myself, now how can they make an absolute conclusion like that so soon? As I thought about it some more, I pondered the exact opposite.
What if the D of HS immediately found evidence of terrorism, but to avoid an inevitable public panic, their first protocol is to tell the media the opposite. That would really suck and I really hope my overall mistrust of government, just has me over-thinking it. Benefit of the doubt aside, let’s face the facts. The political correctness disease has crossed party lines and is infecting the good minds of some very staunch GOP’ers. So nothing is for certain anymore.
I let my pessimism fade for the rest of the night. But when I got home this morning and watched the TV coverage, I worked myself up all over again. I saw the video footage of the actual collapse. That bridge broke away from it’s north and south supports simultaneously and fell straight down. I invite structural engineers, bridge architects, and/or physics professors to watch the video and explain how that can happen without an earthquake, or river barge striking a support. There’s only one cause this layman has ever seen that produces that type of action: “Synchronized Demolition Charges”.
There’s your food for thought. I’m most likely wrong. I’ll be glad to be wrong. It’s comforting that 15 hrs. have gone by without any other similar incidents. You have to put some stock in the fact that the terrorists’ objective is to kill ALL non-Muslims and when that’s not possible, destroy their economies. The I-35 bridge is a big deal to us Minnesotans, but on a terrorists’ scale: it’s peanuts. If it really was a terrorist act, we would have heard about 25 other major bridge collapses last night. Hmmm…
Peace and Harmony wishes to you all.