On August 1, 2007 at approximately 1800 hours, the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed from abutment to abutment, falling into the Mississippi River. The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge (Bridge 9340) was an eight-lane, 1,900 foot deck-arch-truss bridge that spanned the Mississippi River. The north-south bridge connected the Minneapolis neighborhoods of Downtown East and Marcy-Holmes. The bridge was opened in 1967, was 1,907 feet in length, 108 feet wide, and had a clearance below of 64 feet. To avoid interference with river naviation, the I-35W bridge had no piers built into the river bed. Instead, the center span of the bridge consisted of a single 458-foot steel arched truss over the 390-foot wide navigation channel. The north abutment of the bridge was anchored northwest of the University of Minnesota East Bank campus. The south abutment was anchored just northeast of the Minneapolis Metrodome.
The bridge was reportedly Minnesota’s second busiest bridge, carrying an average of 141,000 vehicles a day. As a result of the bridge failure, reports indicate that more than 50 vehicles went into the river. Several vehicles, including a semi-trailer truck caught fire. In addition a portion of the bridge collapsed onto three empty freight train cars that were sitting below the bridge. To date, there are five people confirmed dead, over 100 injured, and an unknown amount of people are still missing. On Thursday August 2, 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered the river level using the Ford Dam (located about 3 miles downriver at West River Road and East 50th Street) by two feet to allow easier access to vehicles in the water. Emergency responders are on-site conducting diving and recovery operations. Recovery operations could extend through the entire weekend.
