I 35w Bridge Collapse

You've seen the video... on the news, on the internet, email, and even cell phone.  It was our company that installed the camera that captured the bridge collapse as it happened.  I wish our 15 minutes of fame were for something positive, but unfortunately we didn't get to choose.

The Installation

We won a government contract in 2004 to wire and install security cameras and access control at 10 of the Mississippi Lock & Dams from the US Army Corp of Engineers.  The installation that caught the video was of course at the Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock & Dam.

The security camera was an ExtremeCCTV camera, mounted on an entry pedestal and was designed simply to see a few feet and look at the faces of people requesting entry into the facility.

The video was recorded with a Dedicated Micro's DVR (digital video recorder).  See the faq section below regarding this equipment. 

The Events from Our Vantage Point

Kevin and I were stopping to get our hockey skates sharpened at the end of the work day.  When we entered the sports store everyone had a blank stare looking at the television watching live video.  We sat and stared too.  I asked Kevin if that was the bridge that was by the LSAF lock, he didn't think it was... then we saw a picture of the lock and we knew right away that we had cameras very close to that location.  We made a brief comment to the people in the store, they probably didn't believe us. 

On the way home we discussed whether or not either of the two cameras could have caught the collapse.  Neither of us could remember seeing the bridge in either of the cameras.

Later that evening I got a call from a Corp Engineer asking if I could make myself available if needed, of course I said yes, but I told him that I didn't either of the cameras caught anything. 

The next day I received an urgent call to get to the Lock for Technical Support.  The Corp Security Officer told me to turn on the tv and take a look at CNN.  As soon as I saw the first frame of the video I knew that it had been recorded by our system. 

At this point no one knew if it was terrorism or simply a terrible accident.  I gave them instructions on how to properly preserve the video and made plans to get up there.  Upon arrival I was escorted on site by a police cruiser with lights flashing.  I have to admit, it was pretty cool to have hundreds of onlookers staring and wondering who I was. 

When I arrived they stopped a meeting full of big shots from the FBI, NTSB and who knows how many other agencies to introduce me.  I passed out business cards and offered some insights to the digital recorder and what they could expect to get from the video evidence.  They had packed up the recorder and sent it off to the FBI for analysis.  I setup the replacement recorder properly to ensure the events of the rescue / recovery were video documented. 

I was then given a tour of the site.  I can describe it best by saying that it was so bad it didn't even look real, like a "movie set".  As I was surveying the damage I noticed that the little turn in spot where we parked our trucks every day for over a month was gone... covered by massive chunks of steel and concrete.  I thought to myself... had this happened exactly 2 years earlier there would have been a good chance that Kevin or I would have been killed or injured. 

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