A sinking feeling.

X'o'Lore

Well, I suppose since it's been plastered on the news all over my home state I might as well assault all of you with news of a recent bridge collapse. So it would seem a section of a major roadway that I had used fairly regularly decided it was rather tired and wanted to lay down for a bit. I'm not sure what to think about it. I know several people who could've been caught in that including myself, but none were, so yay for me I guess. I'd sure hate to have to post here from a watery grave. I hear the internet service is terrible.

illithid235

I had an experience just yesterday that was just the opposite. My parents were going out to eat then going shopping, and they suggested that I drive separately so I could just go home after eating. At first I didn't want to do this, and told them so, citing the extremely high gas prices. But eventually I buckled, realizing that being shopping with them would get extremely boring, and it was far too hot for me to just sit in the car. So, we went out to get dinner and I started my drive home. I had just learned a new shortcut from a high-school friend who I saw a few days ago for the first time in about a year, so I decided to try it out.

As I was driving down the country road, with rows of corn on either side of the road and the tiny space without corn filled with dense foliage. Before I knew it, WHAMMO! a deer runs out and smacks into the front passenger corner of my car.

The car's a little damaged, still drivable, and no injury to me, but it's just so crazy how so many things could have gone differently if things were just business as usual.

I'm glad you're okay though... makes you ruminate on your mortality, doesn't it?

Serephel

X, I know how you feel. I live in Iowa, but everyone on my mom's side of the family lives in Minneapolis, and some of them use that bridge occasionally (not every day, though). Fortunately, my family is all okay, but it could have been terrible. I'm also very happy you and your family are okay.

However, I would personally feel insulted if you stopped talking to us after you die.

Serephel

Boy, I'm sure glad that people aren't overreacting about bridges after the Minneapolis incident.

Oh wait.

The local paper for my bum-fuck part of Iowa, the Quad City Times, today ran a special report entitled "Our Bridges - Are They Safe?" on the front page. Normally, I don't read this paper. I read the Wall Street Journal, because I like looking down on people. Unfortunately, there is no WSJ for Sundays, so I read this.

It starts: Frustration on I-74 Bridge. The I-74 bridge and the one in Minneapolis both were DECLARED DEFICIENT, but Quad-Citians DON'T HAVE TO FEAR A COLLAPSE, experts say. Instead, they need to worry about getting injured while driving on the OUTDATED STRUCTURE.

Caps, bold point, and color are all as written on the front page. So, the paper first grabs your balls with that red print. My first reaction was OH SHIT I AM GOING TO DIE DAMN YOU SCARE TACTICS MEDIA!!!! Then the articles goes in depth with the deficiency rating system, people's opinions, and accidents on the bridge.

So now, we're going to spend tax dollars building a gate system onto the bridge along with cameras placed all along the bridge, so they can close it off when something like a car accident (or a bridge collapse) happens.

Anyone else who lives by a bridge seeing the same thing happen?

Behemoth

Not specifically, but I heard alot on NPR about the same stuff we've been hearing for years; old infrastructure won't last forever, we need money. Surprisingly, I think that the major bridges here, Throgs, GWB, Whitestone, etc. are actually well maintained. And these are some rather large bridges, too. The GWB is 2 layers and I think 10 lanes on each.

KhanFusion

Fun note: I drive across one of the oldest "modern" bridges in the US twice a day.

geoko

Well, in the bay area, we're not even that close to where this happened, but we've already had a nasty bridge collapse. The difference is the overall sense of the amount of damage the 89 earthquake did overshadowed it, and the Bay Bridge collapse became just another part of the massive amount of destruction. (For those who don't know, it didn't go into the water, it's a double decker bridge and the top collapsed onto the bottom.) So it already collapsed once, and that was almost 18 years ago. They're building the new bridge along side the current one right now, but who knows how it would do in another big quake. Not to mention the more recent overpass collapse, coming off the same bridge, and an even more recent overpass collapse outside of sacramento. (That was about 2 days before the big bridge collapse, fortunately with no deaths.) Combined, all these factors made this event strike rather close to home, and it makes for a rather disturbing drive around here...

Mish42

Heh. The scare tactic article in the Dallas Morning news found that a bunch of our main bridges were rated even more dangerous than the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis, and are older and used more. Or something like that... my mom joked that we should go and live dangerously and drive up and down the bridge that scored 29 out of 100 and has cars going over it all the time. (The Minneapolis bridge scored 50)