Anniversary of 35W Bridge Collapse

One year ago today, the I-35W Bridge crossing the Mississippi collapsed. We all have our stories of where we were and how we found out; I was luckily at home. A friend instant messaged me to tell me moments after she found out, I Twittered about it, and spent the rest of the evening with the laptop on the couch. I spent a bunch of time relaying information from Noah Kunin and posting to his website on his behalf — Noah essentially lived under the bridge. His photos taken after he was helping people at the site are pretty powerful. I spent the rest of the time reading news and blogs, helping aggregate new information at MNspeak.com.

My friend’s cousin’s husband died in the tragedy, leaving behind his wife and two children. Most all of us have connections and memories and different ways we were impacted.

The Franken campaign released a statement this morning saying that Franken will not be campaigning today and they are airing no advertisements. In Franken’s words:

This anniversary is more than a sad reminder of the lives lost and irrevocably altered one year ago, it’s also a reminder of how strong our community really is. We will never forget the stories of Minnesotans rushing towards the danger - into the water to save their neighbors. In the days following the tragedy, we made a firm commitment to rebuild. And forming over the Mississippi River every day, we see the results of that commitment. For Franni and me, this day will always be marked with solemn remembrance of what we have lost, and also a deep appreciation for what we retain and what we can build together.

Coleman and Klobuchar commemorate the bridge collapse. The Star Tribune lists information on the memorial events today, MetroTransit is offering free rides to the memorial event and WCCO has a fantastic retrospective on the bridge collapse.