Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge: Difference between revisions
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#REDIRECT [[14th Street bridges]] |
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The '''Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge''' is located on the [[Potomac River]] between [[Arlington, Virginia]] and [[Washington, DC]]. [[Interstate 395]] and [[U.S. Highway 1]] cross on the 3 spans of the [[14th Street Bridge (I-395)|14th Street Bridge Complex]]. The easternmost span was originally named the '''Rochambeau Bridge''' when it was built in 1950. |
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In [[1983]], following a [[1982]] airplane crash which struck it, the Rochambeau Bridge was renamed to honor Arland D. Williams Jr., who was a heroic victim of the disaster |
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== Air Florida Flight 90 == |
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On [[January 13]], [[1982]], during an extraordinary period of freezing weather, [[Air Florida Flight 90]] took off from nearby [[Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport|Washington National Airport]], failed to gain altitude, and crashed into the bridge, where it hit six cars and a truck on the bridge, killing four motorists. The plane then fell into the freezing [[Potomac River]]. |
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Only six of the airliner's 74 occupants were able to escape the sinking plane. One of these, later identified as 50-year-old Arland D. Williams Jr., repeatedly gave up a rescue line to help save others. The next day, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' described his heroism: |
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:"He was about 50 years old, one of half a dozen survivors clinging to twisted wreckage bobbing in the icy Potomac when the first helicopter arrived. To the copter's two-man Park Police crew he seemed the most alert. Life vests were dropped, then a flotation ball. The man passed them to the others. On two occasions, the crew recalled last night, he handed away a life line from the hovering machine that could have dragged him to safety. The helicopter crew - who rescued five people, the only persons who survived from the jetliner - lifted a woman to the riverbank, then dragged three more persons across the ice to safety. Then the life line saved a woman who was trying to swim away from the sinking wreckage, and the helicopter pilot, Donald W. Usher, returned to the scene, but the man was gone," |
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:source: "A Hero - Passenger Aids Others, Then Dies", ''The Washington Post'', January 14, 1982. |
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==External links== |
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*[http://www.uscg.mil/hq/reserve/magazine/mag2002/JanMar02/flt90.htm Air Florida Flight 90: Reservists remember] |
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*[http://www.roadstothefuture.com/AirFlorida_SubwayDis.html 14th Street Bridge, the Air Florida Crash, and Subway Disaster] |
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*[http://aviation-safety.net/database/1982/820113-0.htm Aviation safety network - accident description] |
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*[http://www.avweb.com/news/safety/182404-1.html Cockpit voice recording transcript for the crash of Air Florida Flight 90] |
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[[Category:U.S. Interstate Highway system|395]] |
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[[Category:Interstate highways in District of Columbia|395]] |
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[[Category:Bridges in Washington, DC]] |
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[[Category:Interstate highways in Virginia|395]] |
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[[Category:Bridges in Virginia]] |
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Latest revision as of 07:13, 4 January 2019
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