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The 2000s in America

Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse

by Sally Driscoll

The Event: The collapse of an eight-lane highway bridge that spanned the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul

Date: August 1, 2007

Place: Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota

During the evening rush hour on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, a major bridge used by commuters in the Twin Cities suddenly collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 and injuring 145 others. The accident and ensuing investigation shed light on the nation’s aging infrastructure and incited a national debate over how to pay for repairs and new construction.

In 2006, the United States Department of Transportation found more than 73,000 bridges to be in need of repair or replacement. The forty-year-old I-35W bridge was undergoing repairs when it collapsed on August 1, 2007. Four of its eight lanes were closed, with concrete work scheduled to begin on the closed portion that evening. The four open lanes of the 1,907-foot-long bridge had bumper-to-bumper traffic when, suddenly, the steel deck truss separated from the southern and northern spans and fell 108 feet into the Mississippi River, plunging 111 vehicles into the water or atop submerged sections of deck. Several spans collapsed onto the land beneath, crushing more cars and a several train cars below. Before emergency workers arrived on the scene, hundreds of people rushed to help, diving into the water to rescue victims, providing first aid, or assisting with evacuations. After a few days of searches, the final death toll totaled 13, with 145 people injured.

At first, many people thought the collapse was caused by an act of terrorism or possibly an earthquake. After a lengthy investigation, aided by video taken by a motion-activated surveillance camera, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the accident was the result of a design error, blaming the bridge’s lack of redundancy and, in particular, the gusset plates for their inability to withstand added weight of the construction loads and heavy traffic on the bridge. In addition, they faulted federal and state transportation agencies for inadequate inspections of the gusset plates and for failing to consider gusset plates in their weight-load statistics, leading to more than one hundred lawsuits. While the incident shocked the nation, the efficiency of the rescue and recovery, as well as individual stories of heroism, lifted spirits. A replacement bridge, St. Anthony Falls Bridge, opened on September 18, 2008, three months ahead of schedule.

A Coast Guard vessel patrols a safety zone around the Minnesota bridge collapse site in Minneapolis, August 3, 2007

AUGHTS_MinneapolisI-35W.jpg

(U.S. Coast Guard/Photograph by Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier)

Impact

The collapse of the I-35W bridge thrust the nation’s aging infrastructure into the limelight. The NTSB made several recommendations to the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, while the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) prepared the “Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,” giving most bridges in the United States a grade of “C.” While the ASCE also estimated that $9.4 billion a year for twenty years would be needed for their repair, only a small fraction of that estimate was set aside in the years immediately following the incident.

Further Reading

1 

“Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis.” Minnesota Department of Transportation. Minnesota Department of Transportation, n.d. Web. 3 Aug. 2012.

2 

LePatner, Barry B. “Whitewashing the I-35W Bridge Collapse.” USA Today Magazine 1 May 2011: 70–71. Print.

3 

National Transportation Safety Board. Highway Accident Report—Collapse of I-35W Highway Bridge. Washington, DC: NTSB, 2008. PDF file.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Driscoll, Sally. "Minneapolis I-35W Bridge Collapse." The 2000s in America, edited by Craig Belanger, Salem Press, 2013. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=2000_0253.
APA 7th
Driscoll, S. (2013). Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse. In C. Belanger (Ed.), The 2000s in America. Salem Press.
CMOS 17th
Driscoll, Sally. "Minneapolis I-35W Bridge Collapse." Edited by Craig Belanger. The 2000s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2013. Accessed September 18, 2025. online.salempress.com.