19th Avenue South bikeway

A short bicycle trail links a West Bank neighborhood with West River Road (the parkway alongside the Mississippi River). White arches are the 10th Avenue bridge, which is sometimes mistakenly called the Cedar Avenue bridge (it does connect to Cedar Avenue on the south end). The green steel framework is (was) the Interstate 35W bridge, the one that collapsed during evening rush hour on August 1, 2007. The buildings visible beyond are on the other side of the river. The Red Cross building and downtown Minneapolis are on this side of the river, beyond where my video ends. Dinkytown, University Avenue and that squashed freight train are all on the other side. The security camera that caught the actual collapse is at the river's edge, right next to a lock on this side of the river, just beyond the bridges at the end if the vid. I took this video on the morning of July 7, 2007, as just another random bikeway view of no particular significance. Had the camera not stopped at 30 seconds, I would have a complete sequence going under both bridges. Of course I had no idea what would happen here less than a month later. Don't even think of walking or riding down this trail for now; it's closed and guarded until further notice.

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YouTube | July 8, 2007

Tags:. .walking. .vid. .train. .stopped. .next