Thanks to you at home for joining me this hour. On August 2nd of 2007, this was the top story on the evening news.

Tonight, the tragedy in Minnesota, the initial disaster, and now the search for more victims

and for clues to what happened.

The children stranded on a school bus when the bridge gave way.

You are looking live at the scene of the disaster here in the Twin Cities

where the first word that something had gone wrong

arrived here at the height of the rush hour just after six o'clock last

night we now know it was a bridge collapse a disaster that got the attention and

quickly of the entire nation.

The I-35 West Bridge collapsed in Minneapolis.

The tragedy claimed 13 lives on Wednesday, August 1st,

and the very next day the president came out and said this.

A terrible situation there in Minneapolis. We in the federal government must respond and respond robustly to help the

people there not only recover, but to make sure that lifeline of activity that bridge gets rebuilt as quickly as possible.

We in the federal government must make must respond to make sure that bridge gets rebuilt as quickly as possible.

And that was exactly the kind of response you would expect from a president after a national tragedy like a bridge collapse.

The next day, the next day, Congress voted unanimously

421 to 0 to allocate a quarter of a billion dollars

in federal money to repair that bridge.

Now it wasn't like August of 2007 was some kind of golden pre-partisan era.

It was two months before a presidential election,

and presidential primaries were well underway. It was two months before a presidential election,

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