Minneapolis Bridge Collapse And Sends 50 Cars Into River

[Richard]

Bridge Collapse: Flashback to 1967 

Posted by: Loren Coleman

The I-35 W is visible as one of the darker (thus wider) bridges on this map, and is labeled. It is seen near the Gasworks Area and the Bohemian Flats.

As it gets near 10 pm EDT, the wire services are saying seven people are reported dead from the freeway bridge that fell into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, about four hours ago.

Reuters is flashing the news around the world that “One hundred cars [are] missing in US bridge collapse.”

News channels on television are showing wall-to-wall images of the collapse.

It reminds me of the Silver Bridge collapse over the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on December 15, 1967. In that tragedy, thirty-seven (37) cars and trucks were on the bridge when it fell, taking them into the water. Forty-six (46) individuals died, with 44 bodies found and two bodies never recovered.

Despite popular legend, no Mothman was seen that day, but the banshee-like link between the sightings of the previous 13 months and the Silver Bridge collapse will live forever due to The Mothman Prophecies book and movie.

Needless to say, no ties to Mothman are apparent with today’s collapse (yet).

Rescue officials told CNN there could be up to 50 to 100 cars in the river.

The entire span of the 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 pm where the freeway crosses the Mississippi River near University Avenue, not far from the University of Minnesota.

The road was carrying bumper to bumper traffic when the 160-metre steel arch bridge collapsed at rush hour (just as occurred with the Silver Bridge). The bridge, coincidentally built in 1967, was about 60 feet/20 metres above the river.

Another spooky link: This newly collapsed Minnesota bridge is a portion of I-35. It will be called the I-35W Bridge by the media throughout the next few days (and into history). The Silver Bridge that collapsed in 1967 was part of U.S. Highway 35.

My wishes go out to any cryptozoologists (such as Mark A. Hall, author of Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds) and cryptoartists (e.g. “Mall of America Mandrill” cartoonist Steve Stwalley) living in Minneapolis-St. Paul for their safety, and the safe return of their friends and family. To all the victims, a speedy recovery, and to those who lost loved ones, my condolences.

I will make updates here, as required. The death toll is expected to increase.

In summary, the Minneapolis bridge collapsed at rush hour, 6:05 PM Central Time. It is called the I-35W Bridge because it is a portion of Interstate 35, over the Mississippi River. It was built in 1967.

The Silver Bridge (tied to Mothman by popular culture) that collapsed on December 15, 1967, over the Ohio River, was part of U. S. Highway 35. That collapse occurred at 5:04 PM Eastern Time, during rush hour.

In 1967, 67 people fell into the water. Forty-six died. It is too early to know the final toll due to the I-35 collapse.

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/mn-bridge/

[Richard]

Beyond Mothman: I-35W Blues

Posted by: Loren Coleman

Anomalies, death lists, forteana, winged weirdies, Indian sacred ground, cryptids, coincidences, saints, and surprises abound in the background news of the Minnesota bridge collapse, as this detailed essay notes.

The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota is a tragedy, some say of epic proportions. Certainly, it is the most significant bridge collapse, not caused by an easily visible external reason like an earthquake or an impact from a barge, since 1967.

An Anomaly

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said it is too early for officials to know if the accident could have been avoided. “They are built not to fall down. This is an anomaly and we’re going to try to find out why this is an anomaly and prevent that anomaly from ever happening again” he said in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on August 3, 2007.

Rosenker’s use of the word “anomaly” is intriguing. Bridge collapses are unexpected events of the eventually expected (if no one fixes decaying bridges). But officialdom works in a political world of being publicly surprised by the predictable probable incidents of tomorrow.

My liveliest interest is not so much in things, as in relations of things. I have spent much time thinking about the alleged pseudorelations that are called coincidences. What if some of them should not be coincidences?Charles Fort, Wild Talents.

For those noticing the overlaps in horror between the Silver Bridge collapse and the I-35W Bridge, the links between the two are apparent. It does seem strange they both were on highways designated with the number 35. Likewise, the reaction to both events has been large and understandable. In 1967, after the Silver Bridge fell, bridge inspections ordered by President Lyndon Johnson, never before done in the United States in any coordinated fashion, were begun because of the Silver Bridge incident.

Today, we talk about the Silver Bridge, the Eyebar #13 cause of the collapse, and Mothman, all in the same breath. But in the days after December 15, 1967, the news of bodies and vehicles that had been swept far down the Ohio River was in the media daily. List of survivors and their stories filled the papers in the same way as the features are nonstop on the television news channels today.

Forty-Six Deaths

The deaths resulting from the I-35W Bridge falling does not include any of the people I know in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and those colleagues and friends have checked in with me and others. That’s good. Not so good, people did die and some are still missing.

The known I-35W dead includes these five people:
Sherry Engebretsen, 60, of Shoreview;
Julia Blackhawk, 32, of Savage;
Patrick Holmes, 36, of Moundsview;
Artemio Trinidad-Mena, 29, of Minneapolis; and
Paul Eickstadt, 51, of Moundsview.

The Associated Press identified five of the missing (and presumed dead?), as:

Christine Sacorafas, 45, a recent transplant to Minnesota who was on her way to teach a Greek folk dancing class;

Greg Jolstad, 45, a construction worker who was operating a skid loader on the bridge;

Peter Hausmann, 47, a former missionary heading to pick up a friend; and

Somali immigrant Sadiya Sahal, 23, a pregnant nursing student traveling with her 2-year-old daughter, Hanah.

The police list also included Vera Peck and her 21-year-old son, Richard Chit, who were in the same car, and Scott Sathers, information unknown.

5 + 8 = 13.

After the Silver Bridge collapse, the funerals and obituaries were overwhelming. Forty-six people is a lot of individual remembrances and people touched in a relatively small rural area. The large death toll predictions of I-35W have not come to be, unless there is something we are not being told. The final death count could be in the range of 13 or so. Tragic, yes, but not the 50 or 100 people dead, as we first all heard.

I have talked elsewhere of the bizarre coincidences of a Reeves (one of the first people to arrive to help) and a McDaniel (the present mayor of Point Pleasant) being in the media in the wake of the I-35W collapse. My recent blog on the name game of I-35W’s Reeves and McDaniel can be found here.

The St. Anthony Bridge

The I-35W Bridge was not always known by that name. The span originally carried the name Bridge 9340 in the books of the state Department of Transportation, and before that it was called the St. Anthony Bridge.

Not too far from the bridge, overlooking the Mississippi River, is Minnehaha Park, located at the intersection of Hiawatha Avenue and Minnehaha Parkway. The popular 193-acre park features a 53-foot waterfall, limestone bluffs and river overlooks.

A mask of Taoyateduta, chief of the Mdewakanton Sioux, (in dismissive English, Chief Little Crow) is positioned near Minnehaha Falls. The mask commemorates the chief, who was killed in the year following the 1862 Dakota conflict, and is in an area considered to be sacred to American Indians. (Reminds me of the Curse of Chief Cornstalk.)

Nearby Highway 55 (Hiawatha Ave.) was once the main path Indians used to travel between the two falls located in Minneapolis: St. Anthony – the big falls, and Minnehaha – the little falls. Ironically, the I-35W Bridge, formerly St. Anthony Bridge, was, thus, the span of the “big falls.”

Zebulon Pike founded Fort Snelling (which became Minneapolis-St. Paul). This is Zebulon Montgomery Pike Jr. (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813), the American soldier and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named, not to be confused with his Revolutionary War officer-father, who was also known as Zebulon Pike. I-35W, thus, in essence, is linked to the name Pike (another hot name in forteana circles).

Cryptologic or coincidence?

Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things. Some other names involved in mysterious events pinpointed by Brandon are Bell, Mason, Parsons, Pike, Vernon and Warren. The influence of such names as Mason, Pike, Warren, and Lafayette, for example, issues, in some cryptopolitical and occult way, from their ties to the Masonic tradition.Mysterious America.

But there is more. I-35W is a superhighway, with Waco at the southern USA end of I-35, as is San Antonio.

Jim Brandon, author of Weird America, emails and shares this with me today:

I could point out that the original 18th-century settlement that became Minneapolis, by French explorers Hennepin, Marquette and Nicollet (!!!), was at a point a few hundred yards upstream from the bridge called the Falls of St. Anthony. The ancient St. Anthony was the martyr who had been sorely afflicted by Satanic “temptations.”

But probably the most provocative cryptopolitical aspect, now in the day of the much-denied inauguration of the North American Union (Mexico + USA + Canada) is the so-called NAFTA Super Highway. This is known as North America’s Super Corridor Coalition Inc. or NASCO.

Jerome Corsi has been doing yeoman’s work covering this for months as you can see here, with an eye-popping graphic leading right up to Minneapolis [below].Jim Brandon.

NASCO states: “There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway — It exists today as I-35.”

Mothman and the Minneapolis Bridge

Once again, no Mothman was seen near the I-35W during the months leading up to the collapse of August 1st. None would be expected to have been seen there, at all. Coincidences do happen and weirdness reigns. But we talk about Mothman and winged weirdies frequently.

Even St. Anthony had his problems. According to Athanasius, the devil once resumed his war against Saint Anthony, and the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes and scorpions.

In the days before last Wednesday, Cryptomundo, for example, mentioned Mothman due to the anniversary of director Mark Pellington’s wife’s death on July 30th, the recent sightings of Big Birds around San Antonio, and the bizarre news of Mexican flying humanoids. Craig Woolheater’s mentions of Big Bird stories have been from the other end of I-35, from San Antonio. These were overviewed also by Jerome Clark back in 1978.

Reader Phyllis emailed that on the evening of July 31, 2007, “Coast to Coast AM” with George Noory had a guest who was talking about prophecies of tragic events and mentioned Mothman. The name of the program was “Fallen Angels & Biblical Prophecy,” with L. A. Marzulli, a researcher and student of ancient manuscripts who shared his insights on the Nephilim (fallen angels), biblical prophecy and the Apocalypse. Marzulli conjectured that anomalous creatures such as Mothman may have arrived through a portal. Well, I don’t know about that, but it is true, several of us talk about Mothman a great deal and not usually in an uplifting fashion (no pun intended).

Willmar cougar, KSTP-TV.

The reality is, unlike Point Pleasant in 1966-1967, Minneapolis-St. Paul has not been involved in the midst of a flap of Big Bird, Thunderbird, Mothman, or strange animal reports before the bridge collapse. The most cryptic Minnesota event was the actual capture of a cougar exactly 16 months before the collapse, on February 1, 2006, at Willmar, Minnesota. Willmar is not too near Minneapolis.

Minnesota has had several reports of Phantom Panther (black panther and mountain lion-like) sightings down through the years, some in the green areas around Minneapolis. There’s nothing “banshee-like” about them, however.

Beyond Weirdness

After the I-35W fell and I blogged the same night on the subject of the Silver Bridge, a few in the media acknowledged Cryptomundo and my mention of the “flashback” that naturally occurred. Wired.com, Anomalist, and others were some of those sites.

The Plain Dealer in Ohio then discussed the impact in Point Pleasant.

Meanwhile, one conservative blogger decided to post this comment: “This bridge spanned the Ohio at Point Pleasant, W.Va., whose last claim to fame was the Mothman spoof that had local crazies gaining some national air time on the news.”

I’m not sure what that blogger is saying, but I’m certain he won’t be invited to speak at the next Mothman Festival.

So, let’s be a little crazy. Let’s look in John A. Keel’s book, The Mothman Prophecies and stop for a moment at one of his Men-In-Black (MIBs) stories. An email alert was passed along to me by Richard D. Hendericks about this one, and if you read it to the end, you may be chilled by a minor detail in the retelling:

Keel wrote of a “Major Richard French” in Operation Trojan Horse and The Mothman Prophecies. “French” appeared to be a classic MIB, and came to visit Mrs. Ralph Butler two days in a row to ask her about a strange light phenomenon she had seen in a field. The first time “French” came in May 1967, Keel described the visit this way:

This man was nattily dressed in a gray suit, white shirt, and black tie. “Everything he was wearing was brand-new,” she [Mrs. Butler] observed. He drove a white mustang, and her husband copied down the license number and had it checked out later. It proved to be a rented car from Minneapolis.

“He said his stomach was bothering him,” she noted. “I told him that what he needed was some Jello. He said if it kept bothering him, he would come back for some.”John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, 1975, page 19.

When “French” came back the next day, he was still complaining about his stomach, so Butler gave him some Jell-O. The guy proceeded to take the bowl and “drink” it. This Jell-O drinking incident has become legendary in MIB lore.

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/i-35w-blues/

[Richard]

BBC Bumps Mothman Broadcast

Posted by: Loren Coleman

On Tuesday, August 7, 2007, Fortean Tim Chapman observed: “BBC1 is scheduled to show The Mothman Prophecies movie this Friday [August 10, 2007]. Given that UK channels tend to be rather peculiarly squeamish about fictional programming that might ’cause distress’ in the light of recent news events, what are the odds on a late schedule change?”

In the wake of the I-35W Bridge collapse, people have reacted strangely regarding Mothman and the Silver Bridge. Spoof.com floated a silly fake story that the US government used an acoustic gun named “Mothman” to bring down the Minnesota bridge. At least two news sites posted the hoax article as real. But truth is stranger than fiction, and continues to be.

Now comes firm confirmation that BBC 1 has changed their programming in the wake of the I-35W Bridge collapse. They have, indeed, pulled The Mothman Prophecies off the air, apparently because the film contains the recreation of the Silver Bridge collapse, although there is no official comment yet. The Mothman film is being replaced with the CIA melodrama, Bad Company, followed later by Scanners.

Guess what movie was shown right before the August 1st collapse? In an ironic twist that I discovered from backtracking the television listings for the week of July 29-Aug. 4, 2007, in the United States, the Mothman movie was screened shortly before the collapse of the I-35W Bridge.

On Sunday July 29th, 2007, the Turner Network TNT, showed The Mothman Prophecies, nationally. Their newspaper listings noted the title of the film, then this: “(2002) Richard Gere, Laura Linney. A reporter investigates strange phenomena in a small town. ‘PG-13′ LAV (CC) (150 min.) (TNT: Sun 3:30 am).”

The Silver Bridge scene is not mentioned in the description.

As remarked upon before, the first “media-acknowledged” Mothman sightings of November 15, 1966, occurred in the TNT area outside of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The “TNT” coincidence is there, nothing more, nothing less.

*Regarding Charles Berlin’s “The Curse Continues,” any resemblance to Loren Coleman and his current research vehicle is anything but purely coincidental. The curse alluded to is the one detailed here, and sometimes discussed at Cryptomundo.

++++++++++++++

For recent blogs in the wake of the I-35W Bridge event, see:

Bridge Collapse: Flashback to 1967;

Bridge Name Game: Reeves/McDaniel;

Beyond Mothman: I-35W Blues; and

The Mothman Prophecies: Silver Bridge Collapse.

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/bbcxmothman/

[Richard]

Death toll 13. It still amazes me how the Illuminati manage to create situations where the death toll ends up being 13. Anyone who reads the news will notice that 13 ends up in a least half of the news stories.   

Search ends for bridge collapse victims

By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press Writer

With the search for bodies over at the site of the interstate bridge collapse, authorities will focus on removing tons of wreckage from the Mississippi River so a replacement bridge can be built over the next year.

Divers on Monday evening discovered the body of Gregory Jolstad, a 45-year-old construction worker who was part of the crew resurfacing the Interstate 35W bridge when it fell Aug. 1 during the evening rush hour. The discovery brought the official death toll to 13.

"There aren't a lot of smiles here tonight," said Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, who was overseeing the search. He said recovery workers were relieved that all the people known to be missing had been found, but mindful of the loss to the families.

"We all have very heavy hearts," he said.

Stanek didn't close the door on the possibility of more remains turning up amid the wreckage. He said teams from the sheriff's office would maintain a presence at the bridge site, but that Navy dive teams brought in to locate the remains would leave within the next day or so.

Jolstad's wife, Lisa Jolstad, had worried earlier Monday that the search for her husband's body would drag on, leaving her without a sense of closure. Stanek said he spoke to her after Greg Jolstad's body was identified, and that she expressed thanks to the search team.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Monday asked President Bush to declare the collapse a major disaster, which would make the state eligible for more federal money. The governor said the emergency response costs alone would be more than $8 million.

Bush was scheduled to be in Minneapolis on Tuesday and to get a briefing on the bridge.

The search for bodies along the river prevented much other work from beginning. The only removal of bridge debris so far occurred when it was needed to let divers search inaccessible areas, and state transportation officials had vowed that no site work for the planned bridge replacement would start until all the bodies were found.

Terry Zoller, the incident commander at the site for the state Department of Transportation, said crews would immediately begin heavy duty debris removal, clearing the tons of concrete and steel that crumpled into the river.

"We're looking at hopefully having the south end of the bridge removed by the end of the week," Zoller said, adding that reopening the river channel to boats would also be a priority.

The department has set a goal of having a new interstate bridge ready for business by the end of 2008, and an agency official said recently the goal was attainable as long as building began before winter.

Stanek said officials would meet Tuesday to discuss when to reopen the 10th Avenue bridge, a smaller span parallel to the Interstate 35W bridge that has been closed since the collapse.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bridge_collap...ttuHMDW7oF