Old 74 Bridge Goes Boom

This past year, construction crews started removing the old Interstate 74 bridge (green bridge). Piece by piece, they made progress throughout the year. While we were on vacation in June, crews placed explosives on one of the spans to finish the removal process - we were sad to miss it, but saw plenty of videos after the fact.

A few months later (this past August), we heard a date for the final span to be removed with explosives. We put the date on the calendar and planned to watch it in person. 

A week or so before the explosion was set to take place, Matt and I headed to the Mississippi River to walk across the new bridge so we could take some pictures of the remaining pieces of the old bridge. We also ended up walking along the river to see the bridge posts from the ground. Having grown up in the Quad Cities, the new bridge was much needed and I love driving it (as opposed to driving the old one), but it was still sad to see the old bridge go.

On a cool Sunday morning in August, Matt and the twins headed down to the river to watch the explosion of the old bridge. They headed down around 6:00 to find a spot to sit and take pictures. 

Matt put this map together to show where they were sitting and the location of the bridge span.

Matt set the camera to sports mode and when the explosion started, he clicked away. It was very impressive. 

I stayed home and heard the explosion - loud and clear - a few miles away. 

There are cement posts that still need to be removed, which construction crews continue to do so. By next summer, we should see very little (or nothing) of the old bridge. A piece of Quad City history is gone.