Biden falsely claims he witnessed Pittsburgh bridge collapse

President Biden on Tuesday inexplicably claimed he witnessed the collapse of a Pittsburgh bridge, even though it was well-documented that it fell apart hours before he visited the city.

Mr. Biden made the statement during remarks in Milwaukee where he pitched his economic agenda. While highlighting the need for increased investments in the nation’s infrastructure, Mr. Biden suddenly meandered off-topic.

“By the way, Pittsburgh is the city of bridges. More bridges in Pittsburgh than in any other city in America. I watched that bridge collapse. I got there and saw it collapse with over 200 feet off the ground going over a valley. It collapsed,” Mr. Biden said. “Thank God school was out.”

Mr. Biden was referring to the Forbes Avenue Bridge over Fern Hollow Creek, which collapsed in January 2022. The bridge came down at 6:39 a.m., hours before Mr. Biden’s afternoon arrival in the city on the same day.

The roughly 50-year-old bridge, which was already in poor condition, broke apart as snow piled up that day. While nobody was killed in the accident, at least 10 people were injured, four of whom were hospitalized.

Upon arriving in Pittsburgh later that day, Mr. Biden stopped at one end of the fallen bridge and met with rescue and construction workers.

But even press reports from that time show that Mr. Biden had a hard time seeing the bridge because of the concrete barriers and yellow police tape blocking views of the crumbled structure. An Associated Press report from that day said Mr. Biden craned his neck to get a look at the disaster area.

Mr. Biden’s tale of watching the bridge collapse was not the only debunked story he told the Wisconsin crowd.

He also repeated his oft-told account of an Amtrak conductor who congratulated him when he was vice president for riding more miles on the train than on board Air Force Two.

The story has been fact-checked and disputed multiple times by news organizations over the years. The conductor, a man named Angelo Negri, had retired from Amtrak roughly two decades before Mr. Biden claims the purported conversation took place.