Terrorists' plot foiled at Ohio national park

Cuyahoga Valley National Park has the unique distinction of being Ohio's only national park. Cuyahoga means, "crooked river" in the Mohawk dialect, but this week, something more than the river was crooked. The FBI has arrested five mean who plotted--and took part in planting--a bomb on a huge bridge running through the park.

The Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge on Route 82 runs through a beautiful piece of parkland and connects the Ohio towns of Brecksville and Sagamore Hills. This stately bridge became the final part of a plan by the five men, all in their twenties and thirties, to make a political statement.

Authorities, who describe the man as "anarchists," say the five obtained what they thought were working explosives from an undercover agent. With the understanding that the bomb would detonate by receiving an appropriate text message by cell phone, the crooks were busy calling their seller when the bridge wasn't blown up on cue. Evidently they thought the text code was wrong.

Douglas L. Wright, Brandon L. Baxter, Anthony Hayne, Connor C. Stevens, and Joshua S. Stafford were arrested April 30 on charges of conspiracy and attempted use of explosive materials to damage physical property affecting interstate commerce. While the men were associated with the Occupy Cleveland movement, but an organizer for that group says the alleged-plotters don't represent Occupy Cleveland's non-violent views.

The park was the tenth most-visited national park in 2011, with 2,161,185 coming through the gates.

Photo: Library of Congress