Just how sturdy are the nation's bridges?

The article discusses the issue of safety of bridges in the U.S. following rush-hour collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in August 2007. At the time of the collapse, the I-35W bridge was listed as structurally deficient on the National Bridge Inventory. One week after the Minneapolis bridge collapse, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Representative Jim Oberstar announced a plan to fix the nation's bridges such as improved bridge inspection requirements.