Survivor of 1972 bridge collapse shares his story after ship hit Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge
BLUE BELL, Pa. (CBS) -- A Montgomery County man shared his traumatic story of surviving the 1972 Sidney Lanier Bridge collapse in Brunswick, Georgia, after a ship hit Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, which led to it collapsing. His wife also survived the bridge collapse with him.
"I get emotional, I'll be honest," Al Donal of Flourtown said.
Donal fought back tears as he looked over old newspaper clippings, remembering November 7, 1972, on the Sidney Lanier Bridge in Brunswick, Georgia. He was there with his bride Mary Ann.
"We were coming back from our honeymoon, exactly, from Disney World," Donal said. "You see this thing of lights coming up the river, the Brunswick River and it keeps getting closer and closer. And, two guys ran past us and he said, 'It's gonna hit! It's gonna hit!'"
Those lights were on a ship that hit the bridge plunging him and at least 22 others into the water. He woke up and saw a woman treading water.
"And there was a woman out there and we were talking, and I had no idea who she was. She didn't know who I was. We never identified ourselves," Donal said.
He was rushed to the hospital, thinking his wife was dead. Later, he heard two nurses talking to each other while one looked at his hospital bracelet.
"She said, 'I'm looking at this man's tag. His wife's over there.' Chills all over. I yelled her name out, and she answered me," Donal said.
It turns out that Al gave Mary Ann a life-saving swim lesson three nights before the bridge collapsed.
"I taught her how to tread water that night, thank God," Donal said.
More than 50 years later, Mary Ann and Al are still married with four grown children and four grandchildren.
His second child, Jennifer Donal, honors her parents.
"One thing I am passionate about is teaching swim lessons to young people. I think just being able to tread water is a life skill that everybody should know," Jennifer Donal said.