Boom! Explosives bring down Lowry Bridge

A few dozen fathers got quite the gift Sunday morning. It wasn't a tie or cologne. Their kids bought them tickets on a chartered cruise so they could have a front-row seat to the Lowry Bridge implosion.

"I have to say it's probably one of my better gifts," Reed Larkin said while standing next to his happy dad.

Paradise Charter Cruises gave a couple boatloads of people the chance to watch the implosion from the Mississippi River.

"Do you think if they had this on Mother's Day, would there by quite as many people here?" Kim Pavlovich kiddingly asked.

They choose to watch from the water because it was tough to find a spot on land. There were few public places for spectators to watch the collapse because officials set up a 1000-foot perimeter and nearby river banks are lined with private properties.

Lois Buchinger's backyard was one place where you could see the old open-gate bridge.

"I always say we've got the best view in the city," Buchinger said.

Friends and neighbors stood behind a yellow caution tape in Buchinger's backyard so they could watch the implosion. Some wore earplugs.

The Lowry Avenue Bridge, a Minneapolis landmark since 1905, was closed in April 2008 after it was found to be structurally deficient.

Demolition crews used nearly 200 pounds of explosives to bring down the bridge. Craig Roers watched from one of the charter boats with his three-year-old son Ethan.

"Wow!" Roers screamed as the bridge went down.

Onlookers heard a loud, deep, boom-like sound. The bridge went down suddenly, falling "like sliced bread," according to one witness.

"It was neat," Harvey Asp said. "We should blow up more stuff."

"This was a great gift from my wife and family," Tom Pavlovich declared moments after the implosion.

But there was also some sadness for those who live near the bridge.

"I'm gonna miss the bridge," said Buchinger, who has lived by the bridge all 80 years of her life.

But she knows it's time for a new bridge and is glad the old one gave everyone one last gift.

All of the steel is scheduled for removal from the river bed within one week. If mechanical removal of the piers fails, a second implosion may be needed in mid-July.

Construction on a replacement bridge is scheduled to begin this fall. A new bridge should be in place by 2011.

Check out our KARE family of Web sites:
	takeKARE		Metromix
	Moms Like Me		Minnesota Bound
	Showcase Minnesota