A man i met here in DC.........would call that...........a weapon of mass distraction...........the media..........orange barrel or otherwise..............tends to focus on the flasher event..........a plane hitting a bridge is fairly flashy.......................and the 14th bridge at that.......which is the continutaion of I 395 north from Va into Dc............then u can take a freeway to get to SE..........RFK.......Nationals park.....or veer left..........to downtown DC..........


Not only all that............but they had a storm of the century going on at the same time..............a local snowstorm........................

 Between the effects of the storm, and the rescue efforts around the 14th Street (I-395/US-1) bridges, the 12-lane complex ceased to function, and closed to traffic. The George Washington Parkway, which parallels the Potomac River in Virginia, also closed near the crash site.

Map showing airport and flightpath, from NTSB accident report. Click for larger photo images: Medium (31K), Large (59K).

A rapid rail transit accident occurred about one half hour after the air crash. At 4:30 PM, one car of a WMATA Metrorail train derailed while the train was being backed up through a crossover switch south of the Federal Triangle Station in D.C., and the car was pulled sideways and it crashed into the concrete pillar separating the inbound and outbound subway tunnels. A misaligned switch at Smithsonian Interlocking caused the rear wheel truck to derail, and the wheels tracked alongside of the rails for 171 feet, following the opposite track, until the car impacted the concrete pillar. There were 3 fatalities, and 25 injuries. Investigations identified human operational error as the primary cause.
This occurred on the Blue/Orange Line, and resulted in the both lines being shut down. At that time, the Blue Line ran from National Airport Station in Arlington to Addison Road Station in Maryland, and the Orange Line ran from Ballston Station in Arlington to New Carrolton Station in Maryland. The derailment occurred on the section where the two lines share the same cross-town subway route, and the wrecked subway car blocked both tracks. The other (then) open line, the Red Line, was not affected.

Map showing Metrorail accident location, from NTSB accident report. Click for larger photo image: Large (84K).