A year ago...
It was a Wednesday. We (being Mikey and I) were at a company party, a dinner cruise on the Minneapolis Queen, coming up on the second set of locks by St. Anthony Falls. Mikey and I had just gone inside for some appetizer-type things after having been on the bow watching the river roll by. We were facing the stern, when one of his co-workers jumped up from his seat pointing "What in the fuck is that!!?". We turned, and there was lots of dust. Hmmm? Didn't know they were doing construction or demolition. Went out to the bow, and the people who were still out there were talking about bridges...and then I noticed that we had an uninterrupted view...
...of the 10th Ave. bridge. The one next to the 35W bridge. The one that we shouldn't be able to see because the 35W bridge should be in the way--and it wasn't. The dust cloud was still drifting through the air. There was an eerie silence. We came into the lock, and the lockkeeper ran up and down screaming at us to get out of the way, because emergency crews would need to lock down. The captain announced that he'd called 911 and they told him to stay put in case we were needed. The police started to show up on our side of the river. Then we heard sirens, finally, and emergency vehicles started showing up on the river road on the other side of the river. We went up onto the upper deck and found chairs. Mikey was typing furiously at his cell phone, updating his LJ. I started getting panicked text messages and asked him nicely to post that I was ok--and when he argued I had to explain that most people who read my LJ also read HIS LJ, and it would stop the flood of panicked texting.
It was very frustrating, being trapped on the boat, knowing people were in trouble, and being totally powerless to help, to do anything.
Eventually we left the lock and headed back upriver. We passed several small boats headed downriver with lifejackets and such. Later we found out that the lockkeeper refused to let *anyone* through the lock because he didn't want to release all that water at once right above the accident site. When we reached the dock, we disembarked and went to our cars and drove home. Note that this was a dinner cruise, and we did not get dinner. I found out later that the admin who'd arranged the cruise told the captain to just take us back to dock, and gave him our BBQ. The other boat was still at the dock, and the people on board were eating *their* dinner. Hmph. Mikey and I went to the 5-8 Club to get something to eat, and of course all the TVs were showing various and sundry news reports of the bridge.
Days later I spent hours going through the photos that had been posted, including some aerial shots of one part of the bridge lying across the lower end of the lock we were at the upper end of. We'd left the dock late, because we were waiting for one of the engineers to show up. Eventually he called and said he'd been in a car accident and to go on without us. It is entirely possible that if we had left the dock on time, we would have been in the lock, in the process of locking down, or even in the process of leaving the lock, when the bridge came down.
And really, that's not something I want to contemplate too closely.
My post from last year: http://pixel39.livejournal.com/422057.html, now unlocked for your reading pleasure.
The posts that made Mikey famous: http://belmikey.livejournal.com/2007/08/01/
The post about the posts that made Mikey famous:
http://belmikey.livejournal.com/2007/08/02/
...of the 10th Ave. bridge. The one next to the 35W bridge. The one that we shouldn't be able to see because the 35W bridge should be in the way--and it wasn't. The dust cloud was still drifting through the air. There was an eerie silence. We came into the lock, and the lockkeeper ran up and down screaming at us to get out of the way, because emergency crews would need to lock down. The captain announced that he'd called 911 and they told him to stay put in case we were needed. The police started to show up on our side of the river. Then we heard sirens, finally, and emergency vehicles started showing up on the river road on the other side of the river. We went up onto the upper deck and found chairs. Mikey was typing furiously at his cell phone, updating his LJ. I started getting panicked text messages and asked him nicely to post that I was ok--and when he argued I had to explain that most people who read my LJ also read HIS LJ, and it would stop the flood of panicked texting.
It was very frustrating, being trapped on the boat, knowing people were in trouble, and being totally powerless to help, to do anything.
Eventually we left the lock and headed back upriver. We passed several small boats headed downriver with lifejackets and such. Later we found out that the lockkeeper refused to let *anyone* through the lock because he didn't want to release all that water at once right above the accident site. When we reached the dock, we disembarked and went to our cars and drove home. Note that this was a dinner cruise, and we did not get dinner. I found out later that the admin who'd arranged the cruise told the captain to just take us back to dock, and gave him our BBQ. The other boat was still at the dock, and the people on board were eating *their* dinner. Hmph. Mikey and I went to the 5-8 Club to get something to eat, and of course all the TVs were showing various and sundry news reports of the bridge.
Days later I spent hours going through the photos that had been posted, including some aerial shots of one part of the bridge lying across the lower end of the lock we were at the upper end of. We'd left the dock late, because we were waiting for one of the engineers to show up. Eventually he called and said he'd been in a car accident and to go on without us. It is entirely possible that if we had left the dock on time, we would have been in the lock, in the process of locking down, or even in the process of leaving the lock, when the bridge came down.
And really, that's not something I want to contemplate too closely.
My post from last year: http://pixel39.livejournal.com/422057.html, now unlocked for your reading pleasure.
The posts that made Mikey famous: http://belmikey.livejournal.com/2007/08/01/
The post about the posts that made Mikey famous:
http://belmikey.livejournal.com/2007/08/02/