Facade of Brooklyn Bridge Collapses in Thunderstorm

Thursday, July 3, 2014 9:28 pm | 2 Minute Read

Lightning strikes One World Trade Center on Wednesday as the sun sets in New York. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

Shoppers at Landau’s Supermarket in Woodridge on Wednesday after a blackout rolled through the area. They had a separate generator for the cash registers. (JDN)

A facade of the Brooklyn Bridge which collapsed in a thunderstorm Wednesday evening. (FDNY)

The awning for an American Red Cross water distribution station collapsed Wednesday after three Rotterdam Highway Department workers were struck by lightning. (AP Photo/The Albany Times Union, Selby Smith)

Two cars sit flooded Wednesday afternoon as a mailbox is barely visible above floodwaters in Niskayuna, N.Y. (AP Photo/The Albany Times Union, Skip Dickstein)

A man stands underneath the Brooklyn Bridge Wednesday. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

A facade inside an underpass of the Brooklyn Bridge collapsed Wednesday evening during a thunderstorm. But a New York City Department of Transportation official said there was no structural damage to the iconic bridge.

The facade collapse happened
just before 8 p.m. on the Brooklyn side of the bridge during a passing thunder shower. Five people suffered minor injuries when a roughly 25-foot wide section of facade came crashing down.

Completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the nation. It carries roughly 150,000 vehicles and pedestrians daily.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the July 4th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.