Jon Danzek was still tucked in bed on a cold, snowy Friday morning when he heard a noise he thought might be the trash truck in an adjacent alley from his residence in the 600 block of South Braddock Avenue.

“The noise was exceptionally loud,” he said, “and it disturbed me a little bit because I heard this whooshing sound.”

He said he thought it might be a burst pipe in his home. Finding nothing amiss, he went outside and noticed a first responder. He thought it was a vehicle accident until a neighbor went to investigate.

Like others around Regent Square, Squirrel Hill and sections of Pittsburgh’s East End, they learned that almost the unthinkable had happened. Fern Hollow Bridge, which carries Forbes Avenue across a deep ravine in Frick Park, had collapsed with several vehicles — including a Port Authority bus — on the deck and in the wreckage. Astonishingly, no one died. Authorities reported that 10 people were injured, though none were believe to be life threatening.

Just before 7 a.m. Friday, Howard Seltman heard a loud noise, followed by a “huge rushing noise.”

He scurried around his home on Briarcliff Road, a private lane perched above Frick Park, to figure out what was happening. As the gushing noise got louder, he smelled natural gas.

It was then that he realize the boom and hissing sound were outside. The bridge had collapsed. The span that normally offers passengers and pedestrians views among the treetops now rested some 100 feet below on Tranquil Trail and up the steep sides of a ravine.

“I never could have imagined it would be that bridge,” said Seltman, who lives eight doors down from the bridge on Forbes Avenue. “I walk over and underneath it every day. Crazy.

“That bridge carries a lot of traffic every day. How does that happen?”

Pat Gallagher, 62, can spill into Frick Park out of his front door on Lancaster Avenue in Regent Square. First thing in the morning, he heard on the radio that a bridge had collapsed.

“I thought it had to be on Commercial Avenue, because it is always sliding,” he said.

He never figured it would be Fern Hollow Bridge, beneath where he travels at least five times a week — either hiking, mountain biking or snowshoeing, depending on conditions.

“This is unbelievable,” he said as he looked up at the bridge wreckage blocking his normal path.

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Wendy Stroh, who lives on South Braddock, said she heard a noise that sounded like “a huge snow plow.”

“Just the thought of the bridge collapsing is a very scary prospect,” Stroh said. “I cross that bridge all the time.”

Jorge Santiago shuddered at the thought of the bridge crumbling, even 45 minutes after it plunged into the ravine.

Santiago, 39, learned of the collapse via an alert from his 7-year-old daughter’s school, which had scheduled a two-hour delay amid snow- and ice-covered roads.

“It’s just unbelievable to see this,” Santiago said while examining the mangled debris and overturned cars from a pedestrian trail on a nearby hillside. “My wife runs on this bridge because the view is beautiful. It’s one of the best views of Frick Park. You trust this infrastructure, you go through it every day, and it’s just crazy to see it all collapsed.”

On typical weekdays from around 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., the bridge is “always super packed and full of cars and kids and school buses,” Santiago said.

Santiago was further alarmed to learn that the bridge had been deemed in “poor” condition for years.

“It is outrageous,” Santiago said. “There’s got to be some accountability because this could have been a really big tragedy.”

Phyllis Gricus checked out the damage while walking her dog along Frick Park trails that run parallel to Forbes Avenue — like she does just about every morning.

“It’s wild. It’s mind-boggling,” Gricus said. “It’s hard to know what to say when you see it, cars piled top of each other.”

Her dog-walking partner, Ted Goleman, had a hard time processing what transpired — and what the incident could signal regarding other bridges in similar states of condition that go years without appropriate upgrades.

“You just look at the abyss, where it was and where it isn’t,” Goleman said. “It isn’t something that you just turn around and walk away. It lingers with you. Because it could happen now at any bridge, especially in this area.

“These things happen, but they’re also a warning call.”

Jason Cato is a Tribune-Review deputy managing editor. You can contact him at jcato@triblive.com. Megan Guza and Natasha Lindstrom are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Megan at mguza@triblive.com and Natasha at nlindstrom@triblive.com.

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