Remarks by President Biden After Visiting the Site of The Collapsed Fern Hollow Bridge

Press Release

Q Mr. President, what do you think of the site?

THE PRESIDENT: It's incredible. I mean, this is -- first of all, these guys deserve an incredible amount of credit going down here. And while this was going on, they tell me the gas leak was -- explain what you said to me about the noise.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: There was just a very loud -- like a jet engine. (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: And you can see -- you see it coming out on the other side of the concrete there, this side, up by the crane. And were you worried that that -- that there had been an explosion or that there had been a collapse?

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: We weren't sure whether the gas had caused this or whether the leak was, you know, a result of --

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: -- the bridge collapse. So we just weren't sure at that time.

THE PRESIDENT: How long did it take the company to shut off the gas?

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: Probably --

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: I'd say about a half hour.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: Half hour, 45 minutes. So that was just continuing outside of the -- out in the air.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: So there's -- obviously there's another line right here as well.

THE PRESIDENT: On this side as well, yeah.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah. So that was rushing out. So --

THE PRESIDENT: And it was probably too early for joggers to be down there.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: There was a few joggers actually. There was a few. One of them actually helped us get some people out of the cars there. So --

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'll be damned.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: Yeah.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: It's a miracle, Mr. President. It's a miracle.

THE PRESIDENT: It really is. It really is. It's astounding.

You all realize -- I've been coming to Pittsburgh a long time and as a former Pennsylvanian. But I didn't realize there are literally more bridges in Pittsburgh than in any other city in the world. Did you know? More than in Venice.

I mean, I knew there are a lot of bri- -- I had no idea that. And we're going to -- they're going to fix them all. Not a joke. This is going to be a gigantic change. And there's 43,000 nationwide. And we're sending the money.

And, by the way, we're going to give you guys more money too -- cops.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you, sir.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: Thank you, sir. We appreciate that.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

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