Category: 35W

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More Bridges

The Saint Anthony Bridge is going to complete it's span of the Mississippi River today. The scene of the infamous 35W Bridge Collapse, this amazing new 'smart' bridge will be closing the span today. The photo above shows some of the other bridges crossing the Mississippi in downtown Minneapolis. Below is a wider view showing the two ends, hopefully the last time this view is possible. I went down to the bridge site on Saturday with my neighbor Chris to take the tour. Every Saturday at 11:00am they give tours of the bridge site. It was very busy, but that wasn't a problem, there were several people giving tours and they had portable PAs so you could hear them. It's worth the trip, they meet in the parking lot behind Grandma's in Seven Corners (just off the west bank side of Cedar Bridge). For those of you from not around here, this Interstate 35W bridge is one block from another city street bridge called the Cedar Bridge, that's where all us locals go to gawk at the construction.

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Shooting Bridges with Matt

So how did I get those pictures of the 35W replacement bridge construction? Was I flying over the Mississippi River? Nope, there's another bridge right next to it. The city was wise enough to create a pedestrian lane on that bridge to allow gawkers like me and my friend Matt, also known as Ravsitar, the release pixie of Tips From the Top Floor Photography Podcast. Yes, that's fellow Nikonian Matt taking a shot with a Nikon 70-300mm VR — looks good on him eh? Let's all encourage this newly-minted professional engineer to reward himself with one of his own, or at least a lens I want that I can use when he's got mine. If you are interested in learning more about the bridge, I found a Minnesota DOT information sheet online.

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St. Anthony Bridge Assembly

Here's what the St. Anthony Bridge segments look like before they install them. Note the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in the background (home of the Minnesota Twins & Vikings) behind the Valspar paint company. How would you move something this big & heavy half a mile? Check it out... Look closely, a segment is actually hanging from the Shuttle lift. Speaking of looking closely... Here's a 500mm telephoto of the side of the segments, you can see how they interlock.

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Bridge Construction Workers

He takes a moment to rest and enjoy the view. What's he working on? Behold the business end of the St. Anthony Bridge construction. What's the view like? You tell me. Is that the coolest job or what? Technical note, remember the 500mm mirror lens I was playing with? The first two photos were taken with it's replacement, the Tamron 200-500mm f5/6.3. It's an ungodly monstrosity to work with, but I'm very happy with the images! I still have a guilty desire to go buy back the mirror lens though. In spite of the wacky bokeh, the images were really clear & the lens was light. There are some really cheap ones out there, maybe...

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Compressed Angle of the St. Anthony Bridge Construction

This angle includes the full span-so-far of the soon-to-be mighty St. Anthony Bridge. It's difficult to capture the immensity of this project. Maybe I'll get back down there and take some shots from below. The size of everything there is impressive, big cranes, trucks & parts. Check back tomorrow to see my favorite photo of the bridge construction workers.

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35W St. Anthony Bridge Construction

Matt and I went down to the St. Anthony Bridge construction site to take pictures on Sunday. It's amazing to see them working on this monstrosity. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Matt heard that they took four hours off for Christmas and one and a half for New Years. I have some close-ups of the guys working on it taken with the 200-500mm Tamron that I will show you later in the week.

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St Anthony Bridge Construction 2

Another perspective on the 35W St. Anthony Bridge Construction.

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Minneapolis: Theme Day - Numbers

Nine Months ago today on August first at 6:05pm, the 35W Interstate Bridge plunged into the Mississippi River during the evening rush hour taking thirteen lives. There were over 100 cars on the bridge at the time and they fell 115 feet to the river — it is truly amazing that so many survived. Now 140,000 vehicles that used to cross the bridge each day must mind a new route. For a river town, that's hard to do. The new St. Anthony Falls Bridge is under construction 24 hours a day and should be open on Christmas Eve, this year.

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35W Bridge Collapse - New Information

I've been waiting for an opportunity to post this picture that I took on the night of the 35W bridge collapse. After my little party yesterday I was afraid it might be a downer, but a little reality is good too. The NTSB released a report yesterday saying that it was a design flaw, not maintenance issues that lead to the collapse on August 1st, 2007. Though the investigation is still going, they found that the gusset plates were too thin. Those are the steel plates they rivet the beams together with. They should be one inch thick, but were only half-an-inch thick. There's more information about this at the local paper, the Star Tribune and the New York Times. In my humble opinion, if they knew this before hand, there wasn't anything that could be done, you really can't replace those things. They might have been able to weld something to them, but it would have been a big deal to replace them without causing the bridge to collapse in the process. Back to the picture. I took this at nine pm that night. While everyone was clamoring to try and see the bridge, the first responders had the whole area fenced out. There were thousands wandering around. Everyone was so quiet and polite, We all felt like we had to come down and see; to be part of the event, but stay out of the way of the people trying to do their job. There were emergency vehicles everywhere, helicopters, news trucks and big spotlights. It was a massive event, but everyone was totally calm and serious. I spoke with several people there; some wanted to tell what they felt, others asking for information, many just talking like one does at a funeral; polite, expressive, telling tales of earlier times that they had been on the bridge. All of us wanting not to be gawkers, but to be with everyone else. All in all, it occurred to me while I was there that all my pics of the bridge area didn't show anything new, the landing helicopters weren't unique. What really struck me about being there was all the people just wandering around trying to stay out of the way, staying in the shadows. That's what I wanted to capture with this image: a major event that you really couldn't see. And all the people wanting to be there, but quietly. When the solid waste hits the rotary ventilator, I want to be in Minnesota. People just don't freak out here. They calmly do what they can and don't get in the way. Car horns are rare. Our 'natural disasters' are just something you have to deal with. It's no one's fault, just get your shovel out, work your way through and then check on the neighbors.

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Dawn Over Minneapolis Rush Hour

Ha! I found the place with the view over 35W. My first reaction was; how on earth are you people shooting through the chain-link fence? Then I found the hole. It reminded me of Geocashing, knowing that someone had been here before and I had to find the small mystery. The sky wasn't that interesting and I think I could do a better job on the exposure, so watch for another version soon. The shining emerald city of Minneapolis offers it's best view from 35W, in fact, if you are a fan of the movie Fargo, you will see this angle as the guys drive in from Brainerd. Actually, if they were coming from Brainerd, they would be coming the other direction, but the view of downtown from the North isn't nearly as spectacular. Unless you were there on the first of August. I'll be posting through Thanksgiving, so if you need a break from the family unit or want to show them that Minneapolis isn't that bad, stop by and see what I put up. Enjoy your time with the family, take a deep breath before answering inappropriate questions and safe travels!