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

 Frick Park
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1:30 P.M. EST

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.

1:33 P.M. EST