Where were you when you heard the news about the bridge collapsing at the corner of Forbes and Braddock? Due to the time of the morning, a lot of us were at home. When I heard about it, I thought about where is there a bridge in Point Breeze at that intersection. I went over the location in my head several times and then when I watched the news, I realized that I have used that bridge hundreds of times. Often, I would come home that way when I was working downtown. I would come out Second Avenue, cut through Schenley Park into Squirrel Hill and take Forbes to Wilkinsburg. It’s a shortcut that many people use to avoid the tunnel and if it had been a little later on January 28 or better weather that collapse would have hurt a lot of people. As reports came in about the victims, I found that I went to high school with two of the people that were taken to the hospital. Velva Mathis Perry and her husband Tyrone Perry. Both are suffering from back injuries, but they are alive. I was so sorry to hear that this had happened, but it could have been so much worse. When I would drive that stretch of road, I never thought about it being a bridge and I’ve also walked the trail that is under the bridge, and again I did not spend a lot of time looking up. We are a city of bridges and I wonder how many more bridges are in that bad of shape. Surely, we do not want more of what happened on Friday before the bridges are repaired. I thought there was a team of people that check the roads and bridges so this type of incident doesn’t happen. Please keep the individuals that were injured in your prayers and pray that work on the cities infrastructure begins soon. Also, learn your city so you can work around that shortcut. It will be months perhaps a few years before the bridge is repaired.
Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com
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