Astrology of Minneapolis Bridge Collapse 2007

The 35W highway bridge over the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis suddenly collapsed about 6:05 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2007. Loss of life was surprisingly light considering there were at least 50 cars on the bridge at the time. One school bus carrying children and adult chaperones from a field trip had to be evacuated when it came to rest on the edge of a length of concrete; miraculously all escaped without serious injury.

The astrological chart for this event features not one but two Yods, and also a square between Mars and Saturn. Mars is often active in accidents, and Saturn is structure, and by extension infrastructure such as bridges. Jupiter (retrograde) is square the nodes of the Moon, and trining the Sun - Part of Fortune conjunction.

Looking at an astrological chart of the collapse, it features Pluto within minutes of the 27degree, 43 minute ascendant in Sagittarius. It is the point of a Yod, an isosceles triangle with 150 degrees between planets on the long sides, and 60 degrees between planets on the short side. The other planets forming this Yod are Mars at 26 degrees Taurus in the fifth house, and Mercury at 24 degrees of Cancer in the seventh house.

Pluto is the wipeout planet, and it sure proved it Wednesday, collapsing the entire bridge in minutes. The exact placement on the ascendant gives it great force and prominence, and with Mercury in the public seventh house, it became the lead story in the news everywhere. Even the online version of Time Magazine had features on it in their Thursday edition. Mars of course is accidents, and health. It is in a tight square to Saturn (exact on Tuesday). Mars is near the dreaded fixed star Algol; although the death toll is still not final, it appears to be light. Saturn in Leo is approached by Venus in Virgo, backing toward him as if to lay a restraining hand on Saturn’s scythe.

Another ameliorating factor is the exact trine between Jupiter at 9 degrees Sagittarius to the Sun , in Leo, strong in the sign it rules, and conjunct the Part of Fortune at five degrees Leo. The Sun and the Part of Fortune straddle the cusp of the 7th to 8th Houses. Jupiter was in the 12th House, the realm of hospitals, and the local hospitals were prepared for the worst. They had operating rooms ready to receive the wounded, that never arrived -- as again, casualties and serious injuries were surprisingly light.

The other Yod involves Juno (19 degrees) at the MC in Libra, in conjunct Ceres at 17 degrees in Taurus in the 4th House on one side, and a stellium of the Moon, Pallas, and Uranus at 17 and 18 degrees Pisces in the 2nd House. I interpret Juno to refer to the new Minnesota representative to Congress, Amy Klobuchar, who quickly spoke up on the tragedy and helped obtain cleanup funds. She fits the Juno-Pallas archetype as a housewife and dedicated mom who ran for Congress; I predict this will be a challenge that helps her to grow into her new Pallas identity. The public (Moon) and engineers (Uranus) also will have a lot to say in the coming weeks. I predict that the engineers will advise changes in how bridges are rated for safety and scored for priority in rebuilding. Ceres looks after the small and weak, including children, and I see the need for psychological (Uranus) and spiritual counseling for the children, especially, who were caught on that bridge as it went down.

It may be interesting to compare and contrast briefly with a similar bridge accident. The Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee suddenly buckled at 7 am Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2000. A lone car was on the bridge at the time, with a married couple inside. The husband made a 911 call to a skeptical police department. But sure enough, there was a buckle and also a large chunk had fallen off the edge of the bridge. The freeway was closed before rush hour traffic appeared, preventing untold losses of life and property.

This Milwaukee chart has a stellium in Sagittarius on the ascendant. Ceres is at 8 degrees, Pluto at 13, Mercury at 15, the Ascendant at 17, then Chiron at 20 and the Sun at almost 22. Mars at 24 degrees Libra in the 10th House is inconjunct Saturn at 25 degrees Taurus in the 6th House. Saturn is retrograde, as is Jupiter hovering nearby at 4 degrees Gemini in the same house. Possibly the retrograde near the Algol degree in Taurus kept it from claiming any lives (? - your thoughts, anyone?) Possibly it was too far from the exact degree to take effect.

Recall that Mars and Saturn were in a tight square in the Minneapolis collapse, and here they are inconjunct. To me, the inconjunct is adjustment -- the pressures on the bridge beams were relieved by adjusting the angles and levels (buckling)…((this is greatly simplifying but you get the idea)…whereas the more direct stress of the square brought the Minneapolis bridge to complete failure.
I notice there is a Yod in this chart also, with the Part of Fortune-Moon-North Node at the point and Mercury and Uranus at the legs. I interpret that as Mercury keeping the problem relatively small, Uranus representing the engineers who figured out where the error was in the original bridge, and the North Node representing the new bridge (which was rushed to completion as a high priority project).

In the Milwaukee chart, Pluto and Mercury were inconjunct the North Node, Part of Fortune, and Moon in Cancer. Pluto is a wipeout planet, again, but Mercury makes the area affected smaller. In the end, only about a half mile was surgically demolished and rebuilt.
In these two bridge failures, we see a few features in common. They are: Yods, a tight Mars-Saturn aspect, Pluto, Mercury, and sometimes the Moon, Uranus, and Part of Fortune. It would be interesting to pull up data about other well-known bridge failures to see if they share any of these aspects.