The I-35W Mississippi River bridge (officially known as Bridge 9340)
was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The bridge is noteworthy because of its catastrophic failure during the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007. It collapsed into the river and onto the riverbanks beneath, killing thirteen people and injuring 145. The bridge was Minnesota's fifth busiest, carrying 140,000 vehicles daily. The NTSB cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, and asserted that additional weight on the bridge at the time of the collapse contributed to the failure.
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Immediately after the collapse, help came from mutual aid in the seven-county Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area and emergency response personnel, charities, and volunteers. City and county employees managed the rescue using post-9/11 techniques and technology that may have saved lives. Within a few days of the collapse, the Minnesota Department of Transportation planned a replacement bridge, the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge. Construction was completed rapidly and it opened on September 18, 2008.
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At 6:05 p.m. on August 1, 2007, with rush hour bridge traffic moving slowly through the limited number of lanes, the central span of the bridge suddenly gave way, followed by the adjoining spans. The structure and deck collapsed into the river and onto the riverbanks below, the south part toppling 81 feet, eastward in the process.
Approximately 100 vehicles were involved. Thirteen deaths were attributed to the collapse. The victims, eight males and five females and aged 22 months to 60 years, were all Minnesota residents.
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1) Sherry Lou Engebretsen
Beloved Wife, Mother, Daughter Dear Friend – Age 60
Passed away tragically August 1, 2007. Preceded in death by mother, Esther. Survived by loving husband, Ronald; dear daughters, Anne and Jessica; father, Eugene Shaw; sisters-in-law, Patricia (Robert) Doi and Mary (Gerald) Brindise; brother-in-law, Robert (Hyon) Engebretsen; nieces and nephews, Tamara (Sho) Doi Aoyagi, Anthony and Michelle Engebretsen, Sara (Brad) Miller, Michael (Stacy) Brindise, David Brindise; many other relatives and friends. Visitation Tuesday, 4-8 PM in the HOLCOMB-HENRY-BOOM FUNERAL HOME 515 Hwy 96 W., at Mackubin, Shoreview (651-482-7606). Visitation also on Wednesday from 10:00 AM until time of funeral service at the church. Funeral Service Wednesday, 11:00 AM at INCARNATION LUTHERAN CHURCH 4880 N. Hodgson Road, Shoreview. Sherry worked for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans where she led by her example and encouraged others to give to the United Way. Memorials preferred to the Sherry Engebretsen Memorial Fund C/O Thrivent Financial Bank 625 Fourth Ave., South, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55415
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Julia Blackhawk
Picture dedication made by her son-Adaaro
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2)Julia Anne Blackhawk
(October 20, 1974 - August 1, 2007)
32, of Savage, died in the Minneapolis bridge collapse on August 1, 2007.
She is survived by her mother and father, Blackhawk, a mother of two boys, Adaaro Blackhawk, 12, and Xavier, 9, has lived around the Twin Cities for the last decade and was a cosmetology student hoping to launch a long-desired career with her Aveda Institute training.
Please keep her two children in your prayers:
A memorial fund for Blackhawk has been established at: South Metro Federal Credit Union, 15045 Mystic Lake Drive, Prior Lake, MN 55372.
Blackhawk was a member of the Winnebago Nation, Winnebago, Neb., and was proud of her Native American heritage.
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3)Artemio Trinidad-Mena, 29, of Minneapolis, died in the Minneapolis bridge collapse on August 1, 2007.
Trinidad-Mena was a Mexican citizen with a young family
His widow, Abundia Martinez, told Radio Formula in a telephone interview that her husband was a vegetable salesman and that he was heading home at the time of the accident.
Martinez, who lives in Minneapolis with the couple’s 2-month-old baby girl, said her husband arrived in the United States 10 years ago. She said she moved to Minneapolis from Mexico a year ago and that both were living in the Unites States illegally.
The couple has three other children, ages 11 to 2, living with relatives in their hometown of Ixcateopan de Cuauhtemoc, in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, Martinez said.
"We’re asking for financial help mainly because my children are in Mexico and I have a little girl here and more importantly because we want to see my husband’s body to Mexico," she said, sobbing.
At New York Plaza Produce, where Trinidad-Mena worked, friends and family gathered Thursday night to remember him.
Julio Alvarado recalled a man with an outsize personality and a cheery outlook.
"He was very happy, always looking at everything in just a positive, good way," he said.
Alvarado said Trinidad Mena left work around 5:30 Wednesday night.
He was driving a pickup truck, which apparently caught fire after the bridge collapsed.
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4)Sadiya Sahal, five months pregnant and toting 2-year-old daughter Hanah Mohamed.
Sahal was stuck in traffic. The 23-year-old nursing student was on her way to pick up a friend who needed a ride home from work, said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center.
Sahal moved to Minneapolis from Somalia in 2000 and graduated Washburn High School, Jamal said. She’d been married for just a few years.
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5)Hanah Sahal, 2-year-old from Minneapolis, was travelling with her mother, Sadiya Sahal.
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6)Christina Sacorafas, 45, of White Bear Lake.
Sacorafas had been driving to church to teach a Greek folk dancing class the evening of the bridge collapse. Sacorafas was born in Detroit and moved to San Diego after high school. She moved to White Bear Lake from the San Diego area in 2004. Survivors include her parents, Nick and Aphrodite, and her sister, Cynthia. Hundreds of people attended the funeral, including Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek. St. Mary’s pastor Paul Paris publicly thanked both of them and also expressed gratitude for the many responders who have worked at the scene of the collapse.
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7)Patrick Holmes, 36, of Mounds View, died in the Minneapolis bridge collapse on August 1, 2007.
Patrick Holmes starred as a pitcher at Winona State University in the early 1990s, leading the team deep into a national tournament and earning all-conference honors his senior year.
Later in life, he became a man who embraced fatherhood with open arms.
"I know it sounds obvious but he was a truly wonderful husband," said his wife, Jennifer Holmes. "He gave a lot to his kids. He adored his kids. His kids adored him."
Patrick and Jennifer were high school sweethearts. They’d been married 12 years. They both enjoyed the transition to parenthood.
Holmes’ love of sports seemed to rub off on his children, and he enjoyed it. He took pride in coaching his 6-year-old son’s baseball and soccer teams, his wife said. They also have a 4-year-old daughter.
Holmes’ former baseball coach remembered him as a consummate team player - a hard worker and an overachiever.
Holmes was headed home from his job as an exercise therapist at Northwestern Health Science University in Bloomington when the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed. He and his wife had last spoken in the morning, a routine and unremarkable conversation.
"Normal stuff," Jennifer Holmes said, her voice breaking.
She was still in disbelief on Thursday night.
"I don’t know. I can’t really put it into words," she said. "It’s just sadness and more than that I’m sad for my kids.
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8)Peter Joseph Hausmann, 47, of Rosemount.
Hausmann was a computer security specialist and a former missionary who met his wife, Helen, in Kenya. The evening of the collapse, he was heading to the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park to pick up a friend for dinner.
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9)Richard Chit
20-year-old Richard Chit of St. Anthony.
Family members said Richard Chit had Down syndrome, making him virtually inseparable from his mother.
"One of them wouldn’t survive without the other so maybe that’s just the way it’s supposed to be," sister Caroline Chit told MSNBC through tears.
She and her sister said that Richard was 20 and about to turn 21.
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10)Vera Peck
Vera Peck, 50, of St. Anthony.
Peck had been in a car with her 20-year-old son, Richard Chit, when the bridge collapsed.
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11)Paul Eickstadt, 51, of Mounds View, died in the Minneapolis bridge collapse on August 1, 2007.
Eickstadt had just begun work that afternoon, delivering fresh bread products from Roseville to the Sara Lee bakery depot in Mason City, Iowa. Eickstadt, 51, of Mounds View, was trapped in his vehicle as it burst into flames, dangling between broken concrete slabs.
He had worked for Sara Lee since 1993, and the company described him as "a reliable employee who always got the job done."
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12)Gregory "Jolly" Jolstad
Gregory Jolstad, nicknamed "Jolly," was on the construction crew that was resurfacing the bridge when it fell Aug. 1 during the evening rush hour. Jolstad, 45, was driving a skid loader, commonly known by the brand name Bobcat.
Jolstad was one of 18 construction workers on the bridge working for Progressive Contractors Inc. The other 17 survived the collapse. Seven suffered injuries, but none critical.
He had worked for PCI for 10 years, often commuting 90 miles one way to road jobs in the Twin Cities from his home in the central Minnesota town of Mora.
Greg Jolstad married his wife, Lisa, in 1995, and they lived with Lisa’s three teenage children from a previous marriage in a 97-year-old farmhouse north of town where Greg Jolstad grew up.
"Greg never wanted to venture far from home," Lisa Jolstad said earlier.
No one answered the phone late Monday at the Jolstad home. Stanek said that he spoke to Lisa Jolstad after the discovery and that she expressed her gratitude for the dignity with which searchers undertook their mission.
Her worst fear since the collapse was that her husband would still be missing after all the other victims of the disaster had been found - and that’s exactly what happened.
A tax assessor currently between jobs, Lisa Jolstad is living for now on her husband’s paycheck, which PCI continued to issue, as well as paying for grief counselors for family members.
"Everyone at the company is just heartsick for Greg’s family"
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13)SCOTT WILLIAM SATHERS, 29, died tragically in the 35W bridge collapse on
August 1, 2007. His home was in Blaine, MN with his adored wife Betsy (nee
Ross). Scott was the beloved son of Bill and Linnell Sathers of St. Croix
Falls, WI; cherished brother of Sandra and husband Jeff Hawkinson of Golden
Valley, MN and very special Uncle to his niece Abigail and nephew & godson
Nathan Hawkinson; his grandmother, Doris Oberg of Duluth, MN; and numerous
aunts, uncles and cousins. Scott will be fondly missed by his wife’s
parents, Bob and Jill Ross of Blaine, MN; brother-in-law Jason with his
wife Ronda of Isanti, MN; and many relatives from the Ross family. Scott
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This website is a memorial & remembrance service for those who were in the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse. IF ANYONE WANTS TO CHANGE OR ADD ANYTHING TO THIS GROUP PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL CHANGE THIS.
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Pictures of Family in grief-


Ron Engebretsen embraces his daughters Anne and Jessica after making a brief statement near the wreckage of the I-35W bridge.
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Abundia Martinez, Artemio Trinidad’s wife

Mourners view the remains of Artemio Trinidad-Mena prior to his funeral mass on Saturday.

Fr. James Barnett baptizes Lorena Trinidad-Martinez following the funeral mass for her father Artemio Trinidad-Mena at Holy Rosary Church in Minneapolis
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Ahmed Iidle, father of Sadiya Sahal
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Gregory "Jolly" Jolstad
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IMPORTANT PUBLIC INFORMATION...
Witnesses of the bridge collapse are asked to call the NTSB at 1-866-328-6347. This hotline is only for eyewitnesses and those with photos of the actual collapse, and should not be used to provide any other information.
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Pillsbury United Communities set up fund for kids on the bus: 1-888-642-3040
HCMC: 612-873-3400 for people to call if concerned about loved ones.
Family Information Center: 612-871-7676
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Red Cross:
CLICK HERE-For Red Cross
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Alternate traffic routes: CLICK HERE-For Alternate traffic routes
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Metro Transit will be running extra routes due to traffic. Please call 612-373-3333 for more information.
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Layout made by Kimberly
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If you have witnessed the collapse please call FOX 9 News at 952-946-5767. If you have photos of the collapse, please email them to photos@foxtv.com.
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Officia...............................................................................................ls say the best way to donate to the recovery effort is to make a donation to a voluntary organization that is active in disasters. Visit
voluntary organization
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Remembering the Dead
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I got this group layout from Skem9
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The families of the deceased, the survivors, and the first responders who were directly impacted by the bridge collapse—together estimated to be at least several hundred people—did not have United States disaster assistance for individuals. Sandy Vargas, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Foundation, one of seven foundations that form Minnesota Helps, believes the Minnesota Helps Bridge Disaster Fund cannot cover the uninsured medical costs for the victims of the bridge collapse. The fund may be able to make small grants as a gesture of acknowledgment.