Going to school in Jacksonville, I thought the same thing. In a city surrounded by bridges and a river, I often think about it. Call me crazy, but I acutally avoid going on a specific bridge in the city (Matthews) because it looks exactly like the old Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

I have been born and raised and Tampa Bay and have grown up hearing the horror stories from my family about the day in 1980 with the Sunshine Skyway got hit by a tanker and over 30 people died!

My prayers go to out to all effected by the bridge collapse !!!

From what I just heard on CNN, this may collapse MAY BE very closely related to the The Mianus Bridge Collapse:
http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/1984/har8403.htm

Seems as if there was a report in one of the local papers several years ago talking about the possibility of some connectors failing.

Sheesh...very scary. I can't believe it! I used that bridge about every single day, back in the day. I just sent an e-mail out to the two people I still keep in close touch with who still live there. And I'm starting to hear welfare reports about others I know more indirectly. But everyone is so inter-related in the Upper Midwest that I'm sure I'll hear about so-and-so who knows or is related to so-and-so had a near miss, etc. Hopefully nothing worse than that.

I hate Matthews. I am just glad that I rarely used that bridge. It is so old and even with all the repairs that is going on, the bridge makes me nervous.

I truly feel for all those directly affected. I know that the kids on the school bus are physically ok, I hope they aren't too traumatized by this. I have a bridge phobia already and this just reinforces it.. eek. So scary.

I've sent a text to a good friend of mine that lives in Minneapolis, she had an interview yesterday afternoon so I imagine she was out & about when this happened, I just don't know if she was on that bridge. I haven't heard back from her yet, but I don't have any other way to get in touch with her at the moment.

My thoughts & prayers are with the injured & families of lost loved ones.

The Matthews is a little scary with that open grate instead of a concrete road, but since I had to cross it every day for 7 years (went to school downtown and lived in Arlington) I kind of got used to it. The bridge that really wigged me out is the Main Street bridge, becasue it seemed like every time the center was lifted when it was foggy, people would just drive right off it.

I wonder if my family drove over that bridge in 1993 when we crossed the Mississippi from Wisconsin to Minnesota.

No new casualties as of now, thank goodness.

It is a miracle that all 60 kids on that school bus made it out alive.

The Mississippi does not run between Wisconsin and Minnesota that far north, the St. Croix does. I-35 also does not go in Wisconsin.

Text messaging is incredibly incredibly slow. I am a few area codes away from the cities for the summer but because I have a 612 number I still am having a hard time making/receiving calls.

I had a feeling they would be, so instead of trying to call her every few minutes I'm just going to wait until she gets the text or I see her online. She hasn't been online since, which is unusual for her, so I'm just anxious to find out if she is OK.

If you want to tell me in a PM where she lives or works or goes to school (if you know) I can tell you if it was likely she took that bridge.

Even though they are very new, and they took forever to build them, this makes me freak out even more going over that expressway bridge in Ohio. The one where a few people died while building it? I think it's 280. It goes to the Ohio Turnpike. It is seriously so high up and if something like this were to happen, most likely everyone would die.

She just replied to my text! Thanks for the offer though, she said that she avoids the construction when headed south(?) although she had used it earlier in the day on her way to her interview. It is just such a relief to finally hear from her! :D