Eyewitness at 35W collapse: "I thought it was a bomb."

Thanks to everyone who called worried about whether I was near Interstate 35W when it collapsed in Minneapolis today. We weren't, thankfully, but went there around 6:55 pm to help provide group-coverage for Minnesota Monitor. The crowds were huge, and the vantage points were limited, as they should be, by police. So my perspective and photos weren't great. (For a better view, see Noah Kunin's shots, posted by Aaron. Noah lives right beside 35W.) My contribution to MNMON's report:

I arrived at the scene at around 6:55, approaching the buckled highway from the St. Anthony Main side. Clearly visible were a pair of boxcars crushed by the heaved roadway. As we neared, a woman suppressing tears raced past, her cellphone to her ear. Police in Minneapolis and Maple Grove uniforms and other officers politely asked crowds -- seemingly thousands -- to back away as they expanded their perimeter with police tape.

I stopped to ask a resident of the Stone Arch Apartments, Mary Ferkingstad, how she learned of the collapse. "I was in my apartment and I felt the whole building shake. I thought it was an earthquake or a bomb," she said. "I ran outside, saw the bridge collapse. I ran down to the river to see if I could help. I saw a bunch of cars trapped underneath the bridge. Police had just gotten there, trying to get to the people who are trapped under the bridge. I saw them start to pull out bodies, and there were a couple of chaplains that went down there to assist."

Even as we left, hundreds -- many with cellphones to their ears, digital cameras and movie cameras at their eyes -- remained on the Stone Arch Bridge, watching the scene, half horrified, half fascinated, it seemed.