multimedia blog
Photos: Minneapolis Bridge Collapse Aftermath
Nigel Parry, Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
On Sunday, the police reopened the Stone Arch Bridge spanning the Mississippi, near the collapsed I-35 bridge. This evening, myself and a couple of friends explored several parts of the area to the north and west of the collapsed bridge, to try to find good vantage points. In the warm summer evening, there were large crowds out to see the destruction with their own eyes, and the families milling around with young children and infants in push chairs gave the scene a surreal vacation feeling.
Vantage points from which the images were taken
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| Above: Map showing the vantage points from which the images on this page were taken from. The first six images below were taken walking towards and standing at point 1 on the map above. The close-up images of the destruction visible in the series are of the collapsed I-35 bridge at point 3. The final two images were taken from point 2, on the Stone Arch Bridge that spans the Mississippi. (Google Maps) |
Approaching Point 1, immediately west of the northern end of the collapsed bridge
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| Above: With the collapsed bridge currently serving as the main tourist attraction in the downtown Minneapolis area -- for locals too -- a nearby condo project was getting a lot more foot traffic than usual. Tonight was National Night Out, and the atmosphere around the scene of the disaster was strangely like a family outing. |
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| Above: Approaching point 1, the collapsed bridge clearly visible in the background. |
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| Above: People stood and looked. There was not much else to do but to take it in. As many friends said, it was much worse seeing it in real life than on the TV. The feeling on the day of the disaster -- August 1st -- as news broke via the cellphone grapevine and live images started cycling on the TV, was all too reminiscient of the images of 9/11 and the many wars in the Middle East. Destroyed bridges have been a staple on TV since last summer's Israeli wars on Gaza and Lebanon, which dominated the international news. Looking at the images of the Minneapolis bridge survivors immediately after the collapse, sitting in the middle of all the chaos and rubble and smoke, the notion of a separation between war and disaster seems pedantic. For the victims driving across I-35 on August 1st, and for their families and friends, the normal life they led in the Midwest became a taste of war. From the victim's point of view, the damage is the same. |
Point 3 bridge close-ups, taken from Point 1
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| Above: The scene from the police tape to the west of the northern end of the bridge. |
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| Above: Cars still lie where they fell. The work vehicle at the top of this image may have been moved there after the collapse for rescue supplies. |
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| Above: Train carriages crushed by the falling northern end of the bridge. |
Point 2, on the Stone Arch Bridge to the west
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| Above: Crowds on the Stone Arch Bridge, one of the most popular -- although not a particularly good -- vantage points. |
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| Above: Visible, the twisted green girders from the collapsed I-35 bridge, seen from the Stone Arch Bridge. Police are still closing the Cedar Avenue Bridge immediately to the east of I-35 and visible in this image, which would be a far closer vantage point than this distant location. |
More From This Section
• "Aftermath", R.N.C. Diary (part 3) (Friday, September 5th, 2008)
• "Police and technology", R.N.C. Diary (part 2) (Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008)
• "Targeting journalists", R.N.C. Diary (part 1) (Saturday, August 30th, 2008)
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