No clattering utensils. No small talk. Heads slowly turned toward the television as the volume inside Latin American Bakery & Cafe in Sweetwater rose. There was breaking news. An announcer reported that the Florida International University pedestrian bridge over Southwest Eighth Street had collapsed. Six people were killed. Diners leaned closer to the screen, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.
Christine Domé, 50, sat speechless alongside her sister and father, who had driven under the bridge on their way to lunch just minutes before.
“It was one of those things where you were looking at it through the TV, and it just felt surreal,” said Domé, a success coach with FIU’s Fostering Panther Pride program. “You can’t believe you had just left moments ago, and now all this tragedy is happening.”
Now, pedestrians are still using the crosswalk as traffic continues to rush along Southwest Eighth Street. This past Monday, FIU President Jeanette Nuñez and a few dozen others observed a moment of silence in honor of those who died. Just a block away, a new $38 million bridge, intended to provide a safer way to cross, is a few months from opening.
But eight years after the tragedy, what does the new bridge represent to a community that still hasn’t forgotten the old one?
“It’ll be safer for students overall because they won’t have to cross such a large road,” said FIU alumna, Kassandra Toussaint, 26, who lives nearby. “Sometimes the cars there don’t care if I’m crossing.”
Back in 2017, as FIU expanded, many students were crossing Southwest Eighth Street to get to and from campus. That year, one was killed in a hit-and-run involving a truck. Another had been hit by a speeding car before that. So officials moved forward with plans to construct a pedestrian walkover.
The $14.2 million structure, commissioned by the university, was built off-site using accelerated bridge construction technology and later placed onto temporary supports along Southwest Eighth Street. Cracks appeared on the north side before the failure, but they were not considered an immediate concern.
READ MORE: Judge allows lawsuit that involves firms linked to FIU bridge collapse to proceed
On March 15, 2018, the FIU pedestrian bridge gave way, killing five men and one woman, and injuring 10 others.
A federal investigation concluded that the bridge failed due to design errors, particularly miscalculations in the load and capacity of a critical section of the structure.
Construction of the new pedestrian bridge, commissioned by the Florida Department of Transportation, began on Oct. 8, 2024. The project was funded through a transportation grant and cost more than double the previous even after being adjusted for inflation. The higher cost reflects additional safety features, including cable stays, steel beams and dual pylons, as well as a more conventional construction method approved by FDOT.
Toussaint, the alumna who lives nearby, understands the dangers of crossing, even with the pedestrian signal. Cars still speed by, often ignoring pedestrians.
Toussaint raised concerns for the students dealing with the cost of rising housing and food prices, saying that funds used to build the new bridge might have helped lower the rent.
“Students are struggling with the cost of housing, and it’s getting expensive to eat, so taxpayer money could be used in other ways,” Toussaint said.
The unease of crossing hasn’t gone away.
Frida Flores, 21, a junior studying digital journalism, said she still feels unease when stopping at the traffic light near the bridge.
“I still get nervous when I stop at the traffic light, and if I’m directly underneath it, I’m like, please don’t fall,” Flores said.
For others, that fear is tied not just to the present, but to what the space represents.
Bianca Rodriguez, 21, a graduate student studying higher education administration who lives at Terrazul, said the new bridge brings mixed emotions.
“It feels surreal seeing them build this new bridge and going on with construction while also having those plaques there staring you in the face as a reminder that several people passed away at that very spot,” Rodriguez said.
As time passes, that sense of memory is not shared by everyone on campus.
The students who were on campus during the collapse have since graduated, and with each new class, fewer people carry firsthand memories of that day. For many now, the bridge exists more in stories passed down by friends and family than in lived experience.
Ethan Marqueiz, 19, a sophomore studying civil engineering, said he recently learned that his uncle had been stopped at a red light near the bridge the day it fell.
“I was close to losing a family member that day, but at least the red light stopped them,” Marqueiz said.
His uncle kept the experience to himself for years before sharing the story during a birthday gathering.
“I honestly didn’t believe him at first, but he showed me pictures,” Marqueiz said.
Although the collapse is not always a topic of conversation, Marqueiz said understanding what went wrong with the original is important as construction on the new bridge is being finished.
“It’s one mistake that happened, of which there’s nothing that we can do anymore but look back upon that and try and do better,” Marqueiz said.
Earlier this week, FIU students and staff gathered near the Green library at 1:47 p.m., the exact time the bridge fell. Nearby was a bronze statue of FIU student Alexa Duran, who was killed, and pillars honoring the five other victims.
FIU’s Nuñez called for a moment of silence. Then a bell rang six times, one for each life lost.
When it ended, the crowd did not speak of the bridge with bitterness, but with hope — that no other students would lose their lives to a structure meant to protect the community.
“There will always be a presence of the tragedy here on campus,” said Domé, the FIU success coach who heard about the collapse on TV in Latin American Bakery & Cafe. “It was a very sad time for our community and a very unfortunate event that I still remember vividly.”
The story was originally published by Caplin News, a publication of FIU's Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media, as part of an editorial content partnership with the WLRN newsroom.
