Watson Coleman: “my colleague, Senator Klobuchar, and I wish to thank our colleagues in the Senate for their thoughts and prayers for the…”

“my colleague, Senator Klobuchar, and I wish to thank our colleagues in the Senate for their thoughts and prayers for the victims in the almost unconscionable tragedy that struck our State yesterday. We just returned from the scene of an unprecedented disaster in our State's history. As my colleagues have watched on the news over the last 24 hours, one of the busiest bridges in Minnesota--the I-35W bridge near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis--collapsed into the Mississippi River yesterday evening. The Mississippi is not just a river in Minnesota; it is our identity. Right near where the bridge went down, in 1680, Father Louis Hennepin, the first European in the region, first spotted the Falls of St. Anthony. A few years earlier, he 'discovered' Niagara Falls as well. As the head of navigation of one of the world's great rivers, the Falls of St. Anthony became the focal point for Minnesota's lumber, textile, and flour-milling businesses that put us on the map. Many Minnesotans have visited the spot far upstream in northwestern Minnesota, where the 'Mighty Mississippi' is a little stream, flowing out of Lake Itasca, that you can walk across. It is why we call ourselves the Headwaters State and pride ourselves of being a place of invention and innovation. So when the bridge came down 24 hours ago, part of Minnesota's soul fell with it as well.…”