I heard about the bridge collapse on my car radio approximately two minutes after the event, in the midst of rush hour. At home, a reporter describes the traffic on the bridge as “four lanes, bumper to bumper” at the time of the collapse.

Flipping on the tube, helplessly, voyeuristically, sick of the drumbeat of catastrophe, the bridge displays the apparent traffic density of I-5 at 4am. Where are the cars? In the river? It’s to early to say.

Reports indicate that the bridge was undergoing repairs, but I haven’t been able to google up anything. I-5 will be undergoing major, joint-oriented repairs in about three weeks or so, if I recall correctly. I would say that’s what known as a ‘hook’ in the news biz. I expect to see stories on this from all three print news sources hereabouts, the P-I, the Times, and (maybe) the Stranger.

A few years ago I would have set aside time tonight to follow non-journalistic source spotting and integration on websites such as Metafilter. Approaching a decade beyond 9-11, participatory sites whose culture privileges decorum have begun to downplay such activity, and when I began this entry (at a tad before 5:30pm, my time, about 20 minutes after the event) MeFi was silent on the subject. In the interim, a thread has been posted, but I think I’ll sit this one out.

My thoughts are with the families of all the folks caught on that bridge, and, hell yes, with all of us that have to cross a freeway bridge on or way to, or in the act of, work.