All We Need Now is a Hippie Uprising For All My Nightmares To Come True
I am sure by now you have heard of the terrible bridge collapse in Minnesota
Let me say first my thoughts are with the victims and their families.
When I first read about this yesterday my heat stopped for a second, especially when I saw the photos of the tragic event. As a commuter-by-car, and semi-crazy person I will admit to you now that this is one of my biggest fears realized. Every time I drive over a bridge I am counting the seconds until I cross onto the other side. I won't look down, and I have to drive in the middle lane or at least the lane NOT on the edge. I even start thinking "Ok, I am probably only twenty feet above the ground at this point so I could probably survive if something happened". I straight up won't drive over the Tobin bridge and if I am in the car when someone else is doing so I won't let anyone speak to me until we are safely over.
Driving over bridges has always scared the crap out of me, but I felt safe about the fact that this was mostly an irrational fear. Like my fear of hippies.
And I wonder if anyone on that bridge had those thoughts before they saw the road start to shake. If they had always hated driving over bridges, too.
So I think I will be amending my Don't Talk To me On Bridges rule to Don't Breathe, Blink Or Look At Me On Bridges. At least for the forseeable future.
But I tell you, the next time I am stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the Southeastern Expressway I will feel lucky that it's only a little traffic.
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15 comments:
Don't ever watch the movie, "The Mothman Prophecy" if you want to avoid nightmares! Also I am there with you on bridge fear!
yeah, i am not good with bridges either. at all. annab, i totally kept my eyes closed through that entire part of the mothman prophecy!
for our summer vacation this year, jason and i had to drive over This Fucking Monstrosity (scroll down a bit to the aerial picture for the full effect). i was driving on the way there, and funnily, it's actually talking that helps me not freak out. i said to jason when we started going over it, "ok, talk to me about something." he said, "like what?" i said "ANYTHING!! just talk to me right now dammit!!" :)
and this is why we're never going to key west.
I always worried about that driving over the 59th street bridge in NYC when I was younger. My parents would take the outer lane, and I always worried about it dropping off into the water.
Nowadays the bridge in Quincy sometimes gives me pause - I give a sigh of relief after getting to the other side.
Norwego is okay! I live in Minneapolis, fyi, in case you didn't know that.
It's really freaking scary. Thank god, my friends and family are safe.
Everyone's really on edge. Last I heard this morning there are still 20 people missing.
Norwego that is so scary!!! I am so glad your friends and family are ok!
I am okay as well. I was a mile behind traffic when the bridge fell. As a reporter, I'm getting all the information and I'm still waiting to hear if they found my friend.
I don't think he made it.
It's been an awful day.
We heard on the news tonight it was deemed unsafe (as well as 13% of other bridges) by inspectors and repairs were not scheduled until 2020... knowing that makes this situation even more devastating.
The whole bridge thing is very sad, but it scared the crap out of me also! My boyfriend always makes fun of my irrational fear that a bridge will fall down while we are driving on it, so yesterday when I saw him, I made a comment that I'm not totally crazy afterall and it does happen. He said "I knew you were going to say something, I was waiting for it."
I have to drive over a bridge tomorrow (I am the passenger, you can't pay me enough to actually drive over it myself) and I guarantee you I will be even more afraid than usual. I don't let anyone talk to me/breathe/move/ etc. while on bridges either!
To echo kerry, I heard the same thing - that the bridge had been classified 'unfit' and that 77,000 other bridges across the US are also 'unfit'. Eeep! My fear of bridges has suddenly been rationalized!!
kate.d.- try doing the Bay Bridge Walk. Its done every May. I haven't done it in years, but used to love it...
I too think about how to handle the "what ifs" when driving over bridges, but now I try to figure out how to get my daughter out first... scary thoughts...
God bless those who have suffered a loss or injury
OMG, your bridge phobia and how you deal with it is EXACTLY the same as MY bridge phobia and how I deal with it. Middle lane only, won't look down, nobody is allowed to talk... it's me. I'm so glad there is someone else who does this. It makes me feel so much less nuts.
I'm petrified of bridges. I could never live in NYC because of the bridges. When I lived in the Bay Area, I never went over the damn bridges. I found ways around them. Really!
It's frightening to me to know that the US infrastructure is crumbling, that most of our major bridges are unsafe, and we still keep tossing money to iraq like we don't have a care in the world.
Margalit that actually makes ME feel better too. Crazy bridge people unite!
(or not so crazy now!)
I'm scared of bridges too. My boyfriend makes fun of me for it every time we go over one.
When I saw him yesterday, I made a comment about how I am NOT insane about it because they do collapse, and he goes "I was waiting for you to say something about it."
I am being driven over a bridge tomorrow. I'm dreading it
this happened to the I95 in my hometown in connecticut when i was little, maybe 7 years old so we are going back to the early 80's here but the bridge right near my friend's house collapsed and I saw it and I have been absoloutely petrified of driving over bridges ever since.
Seriously, outside of the obvious concern of those involved, my first thought was, "I bet the people who work on the big dig are thinking WTF right about now..."
My mom has a total bridge phobia - always has, ever since I was little. Me - eh, I figure when my number's up, my numbers up. On a bridge, in a plane, in a car, or in bed asleep. When it's going to happen, it's going to happen. :)
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