A GPS-obeying trucker drove his overweight big rig onto a 114-year-old bridge in rural northeastern North Dakota and sent the historic span collapsing into the river.
The steel truss bridge's fall occurred Monday afternoon about 40 miles southwest of Grand Forks near Northwood, according to the Grand Forks County Sheriff's Office.
The semitrailer truck hauling dried navy beans was heading west on an unpaved road when the 42 tons proved far too heavy for the weight-restricted 56-foot-long Northwood Bridge over the Goose River.
The bridge surrendered, and an abutment snagged the truck's trailer. Shane C. Olson, who owns the truck, told the Star Tribune that his driver, Michael Dodds, was new to the area and "had no good reason to have been on that road."
Olson explained that Dodds, a Minnesotan from Red Lake Falls, entered his destination of Jamestown, N.D., into his GPS device "and followed that to a fault."
"He's never been on that road before," Olson said, adding that he has forgiven his driver and won't fire him. Dodds was not available for comment Tuesday.
The Sheriff's Office said a weight limit of 14 tons was marked on the 18-foot-wide wood-plank bridge, which was built in 1906 by the Fargo Bridge and Iron Co. at a cost of $2,450 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The span was the county's oldest surviving bridge.
"Structures like the Northwood Bridge are more than just quaint relics; they're among the most important remaining historic landmarks from North Dakota's homestead era," said historian Mark Hufstetler, of Bozeman, Mont., who made the successful Historic Places nomination. "The bridges are also marvels of engineering — intricate and lightweight structures that have endured for more than a century with very little maintenance."
