The massive 4 lane 35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River at 6pm tonight. I have personally driven over that bridge hundreds and hundreds of times. Everyone has. Minneapolis is basically a small city and that is a major road. My husband, a school teacher, drives across that bridge twice a day during the school year. My father and brother drove across that exact span twice TODAY, once at 9am and once at noon. Hundreds of cars were on the bridge when it collapsed, sitting in the usual bumper-to-bumper traffic. There were also about 20 workers on the bridge, as it was undergoing repairs. There was a school bus filled with 60 9 & 10 year olds returning from a day of swimming. Please pray for all involved. It is said to be chaos at the site, right now. There is no sign of terrorism, but a Homeland Security van is on site investigating. Thankfully, there is a Level One trauma hospital about a mile away. The Minnesota Twins are also playing very nearby, but the game has not be canceled so that the exiting traffic won’t cause worse traffic. Unfortunately, those people will have a very difficult time getting home, even three hours from now.

Update: Great coverage from Sky Blue Waters

Stunningly sad photos from Star Tribune

Michelle Malkin has been following the story quite extensively and has some interesting quotes.

MNSpeak is really becoming a place online for people to get and give information.

Jason DeRusha, of WCCO, is working overtime covering this story! He also has a firsthand report on his blog, Jason’s DeBlog.

A wiki-type site, e-Democracy, has many links on this story.

The tragedy as documented by a party goer on the Minneapolis Queen river boat