Workers Saved After Fla. Drawbridge Fails

Four workers are safe after getting stuck on a drawbridge fixed in the air in Pompano Beach, Fla.

City spokeswoman Sandra King says hydraulics failed on a bridge under reconstruction late Wednesday morning, causing it to rise while Department of Transportation workers were still on it.

Three workers were harnessed and brought down, but a fourth was left trapped in the air over the Intracoastal Waterway.

Live television footage showed the worker clutching a guard rail before being rescued by firefighters.

None of the workers were injured.

The four men were doing some work on the bridge while it was in the down position Wednesday morning when all of the sudden the span they were working on began to move, according to in Miami.

The bridge tender reportedly told investigators that the bridge just opened by itself and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

Three of the workers were safety harnessed to the bridge; a fourth man, who was positioned at the very top of the bridge in its open position, was not and grabbed onto the top of the bridge until help could arrive.

"All I kept thinking is 'Oh my God, it's gotta stop', there was nothing you could do," said Heidi Wilhelmi who watched in terror thinking that at any moment one of the men may fall to his death. "As the bridge kept going up they kept hollering 'Stop, stop' and it just kept going up. Evidently it just doesn't stop that quickly."

Using truck mounted ladders the Pompano Beach Fire Rescue was able to bring each man down safely.

The span is now stuck in the upright position so drivers will need to find an alternate bridge to cross the Intracoastal.