Its dedication was somber, its vandalism an outrage
Updated: 08/04/2011 12:04:05 AM CDT
The memorial to victims of the Aug. 1, 2007, Interstate 35W bridge collapse was vandalized Tuesday or Wednesday, days after its dedication. Twenty-two letters from the inscription are missing. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)
Sue Brostrom and Harvey Ettinger, both of Minneapolis, visit the newly dedicated memorial to victims of the Aug. 1 2007, collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge Wednesday in Minneapolis. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)
Consider it the latest entry under "Is Nothing Sacred?"
Less than 48 hours after somber dignitaries, survivors and citizens opened the Interstate 35W Remembrance Garden memorializing those killed and injured in the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse, vandals pried letters off the inscription across the memorial's black granite face.
The vandalims apparently occurred Tuesday night or early Wednesday. By midday Wednesday, workers had removed the rest of the letters for safekeeping and police had begun to investigate.
"It was done for two days, and this happened. It's sad," said a dispirited Mike Bushman of McGough Construction as he stood back and looked at the memorial.
Bushman, who was the superintendent on the project, had come out to turn off the water that is supposed to flow evenly down the granite face. The missing letters - 22 in all - disrupted the proper flow, he said.
"All these holes affect the water flow," Bushman said as he pointed at the rows of small holes that now pockmark the memorial. "It should flow like a sheet. This was all painstakingly built. To have it vandalized is sad."
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak called the vandalism "a single act of remarkable ignorance." He said those responsible were prolonging the suffering from the disaster.
"I call on those responsible to immediately return the stolen letters," he said. "It's beyond description how wrong this act is, but it does not change the thousands of acts of compassion and
support that this community has shown."
At 6:05 p.m. Aug. 1, 2007, the eight-lane bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, spilling rush-hour traffic into the waters below. Thirteen people died, and 145 others were injured.
Federal investigators said the bridge likely fell because of a flawed design and that the additional weight of construction equipment on the structure probably contributed to the collapse.
Not long after the disaster, officials decided to erect a memorial northwest of the replacement bridge, across the West River Parkway from Gold Medal Park. On a bluff overlooking the river, it was formally opened with a ceremony Monday afternoon.
The $1.5 million memorial remembers the dead with 13 pillars, each carrying the name of a victim. Behind the pillars is a large "water wall" built of black granite brick. A constant film of water flows down it into grates covered by small stones below.
The lower part of the wall is inscribed with the names of the injured. Above their names, spelled out in metal letters, is this dedication:
"Our lives are not only defined by what happens, but by how we act in the face of it, not only by what life brings us, but by what we bring to life. Selfless actions and compassion create enduring community out of tragic events."
The inscription is rendered in half-inch-thick metal letters, each up to 4 inches high. Each letter has two or more screws affixed to its back, and the screws were glued into holes drilled in the granite; each letter stood proud of the wall by an inch or so.
The vandal or vandals took 22 letters: three of the letter a, two each of the letters w, g, e, m and n, and the letters u, l, t, d, i, y, s, r and o.
City spokesman Matt Laible said it was uncertain whether there was any significance in the stolen letters.
On a sun-drenched afternoon Wednesday, the curious - including school groups, people on their lunch hours and passersby - stopped to soak in the memorial and consider who might deface it and why.
"Have you seen it at night? It's beautiful," asked Kathy Burnham, an executive at the public relations firm Padilla Speer Beardsley, which has an office nearby.
She and co-worker Marilyn Moyer had heard about the vandalism and came to take a look for themselves. By the time they had arrived, workers had removed the rest of the metal letters, leaving the water wall with a somewhat bare look. Bushman had not yet arrived to turn off the water, so it still flowed down the wall.
"Why would they take them off?" Burnham wondered.
"Because, Kathy, people are jerks," Moyer replied. "When you've got something at arm's length, people are going to pull it off."
A short time earlier, Lisa Imsdahl, a first-grade teacher in the North St. Paul/Maplewood/Oakdale school district, corralled her group of youngsters - all wearing green "Young Scholars" T-shirts - who were visiting the memorial as part of a school field trip to the Minneapolis riverfront.
"We're learning about water this week," she said.
Some of the children went up to the wall and placed their hands against it, causing the film of falling water to splash over them.
"It's not to touch. It's to look at," Imsdahl told them. "I will ask you to be a little respectful."
She explained to them the purpose of the memorial and said she couldn't understand why someone would vandalize it.
"It makes me sad, very sad that someone would do that at such a special place," she said.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_18612261
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