A Bridge Too Far…For Some

You never know where a bridge will take you. This is the Devil’s Elbow bridge in Oklahoma, along Route 66. Photo: legendsofamerica.com

Whether you have thought my attention to the Mothman links has been wonderful or weird, most folks, let’s say, have had an opinion one way or another. A few have not understood why I would even be interested at all.

Yes, additionally, I’ve received grief from a verbal few for exploring a couple breaking stories to highlight the fact that dwelling just beneath the surface of such news – whether in Minnesota or China – a wealth of information exists. Frequently, I learn about cryptids, about curses, and about others’ cultures, as I research and write.

So, in terms of my psychiatric training, this is my defensive blog in the wake of finding out that a few feel all my bridges are too far out for them. 🙂

Let me elaborate. As opposed to talking about O.J. Simpson’s new book or Brittney Spears’ custody matters here, I do talk about wild animals, weirdness and wonders, as well as discoveries, disasters, and deaths, at Cryptomundo. Even in writing obituaries to celebrate people’s lives, I learn something new about the person and recall, hopefully, what they were trying to do on this earth.

Our worlds are really unknown, at least, hopefully those I choose to explore, and part of my job is to scratch beyond the norm and share what I find here.

Am I sensitive? Of course I am. It is the kind of guy I am (just ask my kids and ex-wives), so I’m allowed, once in awhile, to pause and explain why I’m taking you along for the ride I’m on.

Some of what I’ve seen coming out of Minnesota was as shallow as what I saw news reporters doing after Ray Wallace died or when the latest Nessie video was shown. The deeper stories behind the headlines are the ones I want to always ask myself to pursue.

Sometimes asking simple questions reveals weaknesses and sometimes it surprisingly exposes new information. Metaphors abound all around for me. Take, for instance, the simple age of the I-35W Bridge.

Actual specific information is important to me. Don’t you think in one of the more important mainstream stories of recent months that journalists could have dug a little deeper for some of their “facts”?

Even in the least complex, I’d say, the reporters fell down. How old was Minnesota’s I-35W Bridge? Yes, we’ve all heard it was “forty years” old, just like the Silver Bridge, and that it went up the same year the Silver Bridge came down. But what happened when some of us wanted a little more exact date?

The partyline answer is so similar it appears to be coming from one source. Maybe it did. As it turns out, the internet, print, and broadcast news media accounts appear to be quoting one Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) “fact sheet,” which does not give a specific date. Instead, it generally says “in November of 1967” the Minnesota bridge was opened.

I asked the Minnesota Historical Society Library’s Reference Archivist Ruth Bauer Anderson to look into this matter, for a more specific date. After researching her archives and old newspaper files, she informed me she discovered the I-35W Bridge “opened on December 26, 1967.” She said that newspapers of the time noted the bridge would open on that date and then two specific photos on December 25, 1967, were published showing the signs for turning onto the bridge.

Since Christmas Day was on a Monday in 1967, it makes sense that if the state was going to open the bridge that week, on Tuesday, December 26th, they would want to publicize the fact. And they did.

The Silver Bridge fell on December 15, 1967, packed with holiday shoppers and people going home from work.

Therefore, the lifeline for the I-35W Bridge is December 26, 1967 – August 1, 2007, thus falling a few months short of being 40 years old. It will be remembered that the Silver Bridge of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed eleven days before that event, on December 15, 1967, at the same time that President Lyndon Johnson flipped the switch to turn on the lights on the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.

Even I need to take breaks from tragedies. I won’t be talking about bridges for awhile, unless there’s some incredible sighting of a giant bird over the middle of a bridge right before it collapses, heaven forbid.

I have a forthcoming article in Fortean Times in which I will discuss the overlapping dates and other Celtic & Pagan calendar links between the Silver Bridge and I-35W collapses, not to mention the Mothman mythos too. In that article, I have more to say also about the strange “coincidences” between the Curse of Chief Cornstalk and the sacrifice of the Corn God. So, it’s back to routine cryptozoology here, hopefully, and no more Fortean bridge collapses, for awhile. I’ve never “believed” in things coming in threes, and I’m not looking for a third major collapse. Fenghuang and I-35W were beyond enough.

Some of us will continue to wander in this landscape. Wait until you read today’s Minneapolis City Pages article, “Stool Pigeons.” It is just one more example of a mention of how talking about the Minnesota bridge and Mothman is “bizarre.” It then jokingly asks, “Is Mothman assembling an army of avian crappers?” (The article looks at a theory that tons of bird droppings brought down the bridge.)

Charles Fort looked at the world through its frogs. It’s logical to me that some people would do the same thing via bird shit, while splatting that on my work. That’s okay. Pass me the gloves. I’ll keep on looking in all the dark corners.

For those that don’t understand Forteans have a sense of humor in the midst of tragedy to take a new view of the world,…well, more about that some other time….

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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