The Bridge

Not to jump on the bandwagon that is local 35W bridge coverage, but some thoughts.

Our hearts go out to all the families and friends that were and are affected by the collapse. That of course trumps all the politics and B.S. that is inevitable as a result of something like this happening.

I was looking at pictures of the collapse, and kept thinking it was amazing that cars were (and are) sitting on the deck of the bridge, even a day later as it sits in the river. I started wondering at what speed everything actually hit the water. A video clip froma traffic cam of the incident makes it seem like it's in slow motion.

After digging up some numbers I'd long since blocked out from physics class, I did some quick calculations. Not sure if these are accurate (although I believe they are), but if one drops at 32 feet/second squared, and the bridge deck was 64 feet above the river, then it would take 2 seconds to drop all the way down. Converted to feet, that's 3,840 feet per second, which is roughly equal to 39.5 miles per hour. Not slow, but certainly not as fast as I would have initially guessed.

Thank goodness the bridge wasn't any higher, and that the death toll has dropped by 3 since last night. Here's to more good news than bad news in the upcoming days.