Summary Statement

The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge collapsed suddenly during the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007 at around 6 PM. The Mississippi River Bridge was an 8-lane steel truss arch bridge that carried traffic across the river into Minneapolis, Minnesota. The bridge was open to traffic in 1967. Thirteen people were killed and 145 were injured. One of the fatalities was an Operating Engineer working on the bridge at the time. A work crew from Local 633, Cement Masons and Plasterers were waiting to drive on to the structure to begin an overlay project on the bridge roadway. A design flaw was cited as the most likely cause of the catastrophic failure.