Bridge collapse near Jacksonville sparks panic during Fourth of July celebrations

NEAR JACKSONVILLE Fla WSVN A bridge collapsed near Jacksonville Friday night during Fourth of July celebrations causing mayhem The celebrations took a frightening turn when a gangway bridge in Fernandina Beach began to collapse sending a panic across the beach Rebecca Bittof was at the celebration and noted that the sound of the bridge collapsing resembled gunfire which caused everyone to start running You heard everybody gun gun gun shooting open fire run run run stated Bittof There were kids crying everywhere it was insane Bittof and her family traveled around an hour to go watch the fireworks The show was great it was me my husband our two younger kids and our dog she commented She explained they left just before the gangway collapsed Maybe three to five minutes because we were walking quick because my daughter had to use the restroom announced Bittof Her main concern was that there weren t multiple people on the gangway at the time it gave out so she doesn t believe it was over limit Somebody necessities to fix something When we were over there there weren t that multiple people on it People were walking through but while we were standing watching the fireworks there were maybe people across the whole gangway she noted It wasn t crowded at all The deputy city manager explained the gangway was installed about five years ago during a major rebuild of the marina after Hurricane Matthew The cause of the collapse is still under study