Traffic around the Twin Cities seemed relatively light today. I didn’t experience any major delays traveling between Minneapolis and St. Paul, although officials from the Department of Transportation remarked that the real test of post-collapse traffic will come on Monday. Estimates on the time it will take to rebuild the bridge range from one to three years. One thing about the news coverage is bugging me: the 35W bridge does not connect Minneapolis and St. Paul. 35W is a north-south highway that runs through Minneapolis and several western suburbs. While the Mississippi does serve as a demarcation between Minneapolis and our fair twin city to the east, the river takes a turn north and runs through the center of Minneapolis. This happens near the spot where yesterday’s tragedy occurred. It’s a small but significant detail and it seems to have escaped much of the national media.
Some commentators are already using the bridge collapse as a touchstone for the larger issue of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. This discussion is long overdue. but it’s deeply unfortunate that it took a tragedy like this to prompt it.
