I apologize to those who are getting sick of this story, but I have had a rough couple of nights and need to vent. I live in the Twin City suburb of New Brighton, about 6 miles north of Minneapolis. I was on that bridge at 8am Wednesday. My wife works in downtown Minneapolis and goes over that bridge at least twice a day (sometimes four times a day depending on where she goes to lunch). She was on that bridge a little after 5pm, but she usually leaves work at 6pm. It was just good fortune that she wasn't on the bridge at her usual time.
More importantly, nearly EVERYBODY who lives in the Twin Cities has been on that bridge at one time or another. It's an extremely important traffic artery that links the north metro area to downtown Minneapolis and the area directly involved is between the exits for the University of Minnesota (University Ave./4th Ave. exit) and the Metrodome (Washington St.). If there isn't a Twin Citian that was directly affected, one can safely bet that they are indirectly affected. You can also safely bet that there are thousands of Twin Citians who are saying "It could have been me".
I am personally of the opinion that the whole right-wing, anti-tax, anti-government ideology is partly to blame for this. These conservatives have starved governments of necessary funding (at the price of ignoring our infrastructure) and then blames the government as the "problem". Do not be surprised if the Republican spin in the coming weeks and months points to this. Also, don't be surprised if they somehow attempt to (1) blame Democrats in general or (2) blame Bill Clinton (I know that blaming Clinton is just insane, but I put NOTHING past these people).
All I know is that our "esteemed" Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed a transportation infrastructure bill because it contained a modest 5-cent/gallon tax (although in fairness I'm not sure if that bill would have addressed this particular bridge). I also know that massive federal funds are currently being used to conduct misadventures on foreign soil.
Yesterday President Bush made some comments while offering "comfort" to us that got many Kossacks angry. I noticed that those comments never made their way into media. I watched Olbermann, Anderson Cooper, read our local paper, etc. and there was nary a mention of the President's comments. It's all for the best I guess, we really don't need to be dealing with his clownery in a time like this.
I hope that we don't wait for the next bridge collapse tragedy before we do something about it. I personally am glad that the Republican National Convention next year is in the Twin Cities, hopefully the world can see what their conservative hubris has wrought.