SEATTLE - The Washington State Department of Transportation is sending condolences and encouragement to their counterparts in Minnesota after Wednesday's sudden and deadly bridge collapse.

Engineers and the drivers who travel the roads wonder what went wrong and what does it mean for other bridges closer to home?

The pictures coming out of Minneapolis have left Washington State Department of Transportation workers stunned.

"It's something that is unprecedented… just for a bridge to collapse," said Lorena Eng of the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The Puget Sound area has had its share of spectacular bridge disasters through the years.  There was Galloping Gertie -- The Tacoma Narrows Bridge torn apart by wind on November 7, 1940.

Then there was the I-90 floating bridge, which was under construction when it filled with water and sank during a November storm  in 1990.

The DOT has even released recent simulations of what could happen to the aging 520 floating bridge in case of an earthquake and in case of prolonged winds above 75 miles an hour.

But those are natural disaster scenarios.  They're nothing like the sudden stunning collapse in Minnesota, which raises questions about thousands of bridge structures around Washington state.

"We have over 3,000 structures.  We inspect half of our structures every year, so essentially, every structure gets inspected every two years," said Eng.

But the I-35W bridge had been inspected too, and until the cause of the disaster is learned, transportation officials here and around the country won't know how to react or change procedures..

"I bet you every bridge engineer across the country is watching this very closely," said Eng.