Rescuers look for survivors next to a collapsed bridge in Baghdad. A suicide truck bomb exploded early Thursday on the Sarafiya bridge in Baghdad, collapsing the steel structure and sending cars toppling into the Tigris River below, police and witnesses said. At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured, according to hospital officials.

Baghdad, Iraq ? An elderly man sat on a chair in front of his house, lamenting the loss of yet another piece of his past. A short distance away, the skeletal remains of the bombed-out Sarafiya bridge dangled over the Tigris River.

Iraq’s focus on the steel-frame bridge, where at least 10 people died Thursday morning, was quickly diverted by the afternoon bombing of the heavily guarded parliament building. That’s not unusual in Iraq, where brutal mornings often give way to uglier afternoons.

But to those who lived near the fallen bridge, the loss was as heartbreaking as the death of a family member. Not only did the structure serve as a symbol of better times, when children frolicked in the waters below and trains chugged along its railway tracks, it was an icon that had endured in a place where many have died.

On Thursday, the bridge, one of 10 spanning the Tigris in Baghdad, fell into the river when a truck loaded with explosives blew up shortly after 7 a.m. The frame cracked, and huge chunks fell away. Vehicles tumbled some 30 feet into the water below. Some people swam to safety, but at least 10 died. The bridge was left a mangled wreck.

“Last year I lost my elder brother,” said the man in front of his house, Sahib Abdul-Razzaq, 67. “Believe me, I feel today as if my other elder brother has died.”

British forces commissioned the crossing in the late 1940s and their use of concrete and steel was a first for the city. At that time, other bridges in Baghdad were little more than floats.

To city residents, the Sarafiya Bridge was a marvel of modern design. When completed, it comprised seven sections that spanned 1,485 feet across the water and linked the train station in eastern Baghdad to the one on the western side of the city.

Initially designed for the railroad, it was converted for vehicular and pedestrian use in 1989. It has been known variously as the Sarafiya Bridge, Steel Bridge, Train Bridge and New Bridge and was one of the 10 between east and west Baghdad. Now, there are nine.