MINNEAPOLIS — The images and video coming out of Baltimore, Maryland are hard to see. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after a boat struck the bridge.
For those who directly work on these bridges, like civil engineers, there's layers to what they're seeing.
"When something happens like this, it puts a little pit in your stomach," said Travis Welt, Chair of Civil Engineering at the University of St. Thomas.
Welt says there are many factors engineers consider when building bridges – weather, wear and tear, and even seismic activity.
"What the performance should be under various events," Welt explained.
This bridge collapse is something he says you never think about.
"It's essentially a freak accident," he said. "This is something that we understand is possible, but, almost, you think about it as an infinitesimally small chance of happening, but obviously in this case, it did happen."
For many in the Twin Cities, it's a familiar sight. In 2007, the I-35W bridge collapsed – memories that come rushing back when looking at the situation in Baltimore.
"That initial shock can be scary as an engineer, too," Welt said.
It's also scary for the ones were there through it all.
"I think like so many people who were involved, the memories came flooding in," former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback said. "I carry a fair amount of that with me to this day."
Welt is quick to point out, while our cities are connected by a tragedy like this, the reasons behind them are different. We don't fully know what caused the Baltimore bridge collapse just yet – which is why Welt is emphasizing we wait until we do.
"I would urge folks, just as with the I-35W bridge collapse, wait until the experts have weighed in and provided and their analysis as to what happened. and then think about how do we move forward from that?" he said. "How do we think about how we design things moving forward."
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