Big-Time Shit Happens Too
So the 35W bridge went down. This was my best route to school, but not back home, because of freaky system of separated downtown exits. 35W was under construction, and so I normally took the residential streets, about four different routes in total. One of them was on the 10th street bridge - the smaller bridge right next to 35W.
This is where we all rushed when the news came, phones drawn. Surprisingly, given enough trials you could still get through with your call. Yes, most people simply wanted to take a peak. They didn't take any volunteers, and nobody really cared about the police. People just wanted to see. So it felt a little wrong. Well, at least this is Minnesota and nobody was fooling with the cops and did whatever they said, but the sheer size of the crowds sure obstructed the initial effort.
Other then the CIA, you could see jackets from all sorts of agencies including some weird ones like the Secret Service, police and firefighters from around the area, and sheriffs towing their patrol boats. The west side of the bridge, on top in this picture, is right at the foot of the Red Cross building were I sometimes go to donate blood. A large facility with all sorts of services and a small fleet of disaster response vehicles. They were at the scene right away as well. Turns out they've been hiding a helicopter somewhere, too.
The Tenth Avenue bridge was closed and used as a lending site for that very helicopter. Must have been somewhat unnerving experience for the pilot. Of course they needed the bridge to go around the scene. I just wished I saw the the scene for myself. So as the tape was beeing stretched, I backed up and went around, to the Stonearch pedestrian bridge up the waterflow. Teemed with a friend and tried to use a walking trail along the west bank to get a little closer. That was packed with people and behind the yellow tape, with a bunch of idle police and firefighters. They just stood there with nothing to do as they had no access to the scene. Finally one police chick decided to show some initiative and push the people completely out. We backed up and headed to the west side. As we circled around, it seemed a curtain was being put down around the scene. Any place that you could possibly see part of the bridge that landed in the water was closed and guarded by cops. That ended being a huge "detour" we had to walk that evening. Next day, much of the roads were open, but still not a single place to see the scene. They even closed a tiny pedestrian bridge down from the Tenth.
So with all the effort, I saw the tails of the bridge, that very school bus and the crushed train up close, but not a glimpse of that piece of the bridge that fell first and was now in the river. I think this is done quite on purpose. The question is of course, what's the point? Perhaps to prevent people from seeing the cars being lifted, to postpone the final announcement of the fatalities count. Perhaps by the time they have to announce final count, some famous chick will go to jail and the attention will have shifted. To me though this is rather disappointing. This is local event, happened next door so to speak, in a place I see everyday, and the only way for me to "witness" it is through some news program. That is, there are no witnesses, even though so many people will still feel they have witnessed the events. That sorta kills the whole concept.
This is where we all rushed when the news came, phones drawn. Surprisingly, given enough trials you could still get through with your call. Yes, most people simply wanted to take a peak. They didn't take any volunteers, and nobody really cared about the police. People just wanted to see. So it felt a little wrong. Well, at least this is Minnesota and nobody was fooling with the cops and did whatever they said, but the sheer size of the crowds sure obstructed the initial effort.
Other then the CIA, you could see jackets from all sorts of agencies including some weird ones like the Secret Service, police and firefighters from around the area, and sheriffs towing their patrol boats. The west side of the bridge, on top in this picture, is right at the foot of the Red Cross building were I sometimes go to donate blood. A large facility with all sorts of services and a small fleet of disaster response vehicles. They were at the scene right away as well. Turns out they've been hiding a helicopter somewhere, too.
The Tenth Avenue bridge was closed and used as a lending site for that very helicopter. Must have been somewhat unnerving experience for the pilot. Of course they needed the bridge to go around the scene. I just wished I saw the the scene for myself. So as the tape was beeing stretched, I backed up and went around, to the Stonearch pedestrian bridge up the waterflow. Teemed with a friend and tried to use a walking trail along the west bank to get a little closer. That was packed with people and behind the yellow tape, with a bunch of idle police and firefighters. They just stood there with nothing to do as they had no access to the scene. Finally one police chick decided to show some initiative and push the people completely out. We backed up and headed to the west side. As we circled around, it seemed a curtain was being put down around the scene. Any place that you could possibly see part of the bridge that landed in the water was closed and guarded by cops. That ended being a huge "detour" we had to walk that evening. Next day, much of the roads were open, but still not a single place to see the scene. They even closed a tiny pedestrian bridge down from the Tenth.
So with all the effort, I saw the tails of the bridge, that very school bus and the crushed train up close, but not a glimpse of that piece of the bridge that fell first and was now in the river. I think this is done quite on purpose. The question is of course, what's the point? Perhaps to prevent people from seeing the cars being lifted, to postpone the final announcement of the fatalities count. Perhaps by the time they have to announce final count, some famous chick will go to jail and the attention will have shifted. To me though this is rather disappointing. This is local event, happened next door so to speak, in a place I see everyday, and the only way for me to "witness" it is through some news program. That is, there are no witnesses, even though so many people will still feel they have witnessed the events. That sorta kills the whole concept.
1 comment:
Wow! I didn't know that you lived there. I've seen footage on the news and it looks awful. Glad you're okay. :)
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