Minnesotans ponder bridge collapse a year later

The remembrance was planned to be in Gold Medal Park, where people gravitated after the disaster to catch a glimpse of the destruction and leave flowers and homemade signs honoring the victims. Ceremonies there were to open to the sounds of simple instruments, including a conch shell, a flute and a gong.

Cathy DeCheine will strum her guitar and sing the song she wrote a few weeks after the collapse: "Ordinary Workday."

"People were on their way home," it goes. "Seemed nothing could ruin this fine summer day."

About 5:30 p.m., police, firefighters and other law enforcers who responded to the bridge collapse were to lead a procession from the park about six blocks to the Stone Arch Bridge. That's just upriver from the freeway, where construction on the new bridge will halt from mid-afternoon to mid-evening.

Thirteen names will be read: Patrick Holmes, Artemio Trinidad-Mena, Paul Eickstadt, Sherry Engebretsen, Julia Blackhawk, Peter Hausmann, Sadiya Sahal, Hana Sahal, Richard Chit, Vera Peck, Christine Sacorafas, Scott Sathers and Greg Jolstad.

At 6:05 p.m., a moment of silence was planned, with an American flag unfurling on the new bridge and bells sounding.

The memorials are the first major public observance of the bridge collapse since last August, when residents across Minneapolis marked a moment of silence six days after the span fell.

"It's going to be a celebration of life, but I also think it's going to be a remembrance of what people went through," said DeCheine, an oncology nurse who like many others across Minnesota was glued to the television the night of the collapse. "I think we're going to get an opportunity to feel some of that."

(This version CORRECTS the spelling of the first name of a relative of victim Peter Hausmann to 'Justina' instead of 'Justine'.)