Bridge Collapse in Washington State Sends Two Cars Plunging Into The Skagit River
The collapsed I-5 span over Washington's Skagit River No one was killed, but it's just another example of how badly American infrastructure is crumbling. It's been a rough week for bridges around the U.S. At about 7 p.m. local time in Washington state yesterday a bridge spanning the Skagit river north of Seattle (part of Interstate 5) collapsed after a truck carrying a tall load collided with one of the spans, sending two cars plunging into the river below. The three people in those cars all survived with non-life-threatening injuries, but it should probably come as a surprise to no one that the bridge--which services about 71,000 crossings of the Skagit river every day--is rated "functionally obsolete" by the Federal Highway administration. As noted above, the collapse didn't happen purely due to the poor state of the bridge. A tractor-trailer carrying an overly tall load struck one of the overhead supports...