Whether they took place through human error,
sabotage or unforeseen circumstances, these
structural failures are sure to make you feel
nervous next time you're on a bridge.
Here are 7 of the worst bridge collapses in
history.
Number 7: Yangmingtan Bridge
The 15.4 km-long Yangmingtan Bridge is located
in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province,
China.
It is the country’s longest bridge on the
northern side of the Yangtze River.
Construction on the bridge began in 2009,
and it was completed in only 18 months.
As Harbin’s first suspension bridge its
total building cost was estimated at around
300 million dollars.
Even within the context of China’s fast
growing infrastructure, the project was finished
so quickly that it received praises from the
state media who called it a ‘Harbin miracle’
and a testament of ‘Harbin speed’.
On the 24th of August, 2012 at approximately
5 am, a section of the bridge measuring around
one hundred meters collapsed onto the footpath
below it.
Four trucks carrying construction materials
were on that particular portion of the bridge
when it collapsed.
It was suspected that their combined weight
is what led to the structural failure.
One investigator concluded that the bridge
had been overloaded.
On a ramp that was designed to support a maximum
weight of 55 tons, the trucks’ added weight
measured close to 500 tons, almost ten times
over the limit.
Early investigations established that the
blame rested with the owners of the trucks
who had overloaded them but also with the
traffic controllers for allowing the trucks
on the particular ramp simultaneously.
Three people lost their lives in the collapse
and five others were injured, two of whom
reportedly arrived at the hospital in critical
condition.
The collapse took place less than a year since
the bridge was opened to traffic and the ramp
broke off from both sides.
This had encouraged speculations regarding
significant safety and structural details
which had been overlooked or omitted in the
rush to complete the project as fast as possible.
Number 6: The Seongsu Bridge
Construction on this bridge, which stretched
over Seoul’s Han River, in South Korea,
was completed in 1979.
It measures 1160 meters.
On the 21st of October, 1994, the bridge collapsed
because of a suspension structure failure.
One of the concrete slabs fell as its support
steel trusses had not been welded properly.
32 lives were lost in the accident.
17 people were injured.
Because of its overall weak structure, the
Seongsu Bridge had to be completely rebuilt.
The design on a new bridge with the same name
and a similar architectural style was completed
on the 15th of August 1997.
Number 5: The Sunshine Skyway Bridge
Although it has been rebuilt the original
Sunshine Skyway Bridge, spanning Florida’s
Tampa Bay, was first opened to traffic in
1954, on the 6th of September.
On the 9th of May 1980, at approximately 7:33
am, the MV Summit Venture freighter collided
with one of the bridge’s support columns.
The incident took place during a massive thunderstorm
and caused more than 1200 feet of the bridge
to plummet into the Tampa Bay.
A Greyhound bus, six cars and a truck fell
into the water from a height of 150 feet.
35 people lost their lives.
A man called Wesley MacIntire survived the
massive drop as his pickup truck had initially
landed on the freighter’s deck, before falling
into the water.
The man subsequently launched a lawsuit against
the company that owned the Summit Venture
and in 1984 he settled for 175.000 dollars.
He was the last person that drove on the bridge’s
original southern portion.
John Lerro, the ship’s pilot, was cleared
from wrongdoing by the Coast Guard investigation
that followed.
He was also cleared in front of a state grand
jury.
In 1993 all the concrete and steel structures
of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge were demolished
as part of its rebuilding plan.
Number 4: The Silver Bridge
The Silver Bridge was built in 1928 and its
name was due to the color of its aluminum
paint coating.
It was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge that
stretched over the Ohio River, connecting
Point Pleasant, North Virginia to Gallipolis,
Ohio.
In 1967, on the 15th of December, the structure
collapsed during rush-hour traffic which resulted
in the deaths of 46 people.
Two of them were never recovered.
The bridge collapsed due to overloading and
the failure of one single eyebar in the suspension
chain.
Investigations revealed that the defect which
had compromised the eyebar’s structural
integrity was only 0.1 inches deep and had
been caused by corrosion.
The bridge’s design had also made maintenance
and inspection rather difficult.
Engineering historian, Henry Petroski, described
the factor behind the collapse as "a design
that inadvertently made inspection all but
impossible and failure all but inevitable.
If ever a design was to blame for a failure,
this was it".
The collapse was also linked to sightings
of the Mothman, a Point Pleasant legendary
creature which had been spotted in the area
from November 16th 1966 and up until the date
of the accident.
More than one hundred people had allegedly
seen the Mothman between 1966 and 1967.
After the incident among the theories that
emerged was one claiming that this creature
had shown itself as warning of the collapse
that was to come.
Number 3: The Rafiganj Rail Disaster
The Rafiganj rail disaster which claimed the
lives of at least 130 people was caused by
a faulty colonial era bridge over North-Central
India’s Dhave River.
The Rajdhani Express, a train carrying more
than one thousand people, derailed from the
300-foot-long bridge on the 10th of September,
2002, at approximately 10:40 pm.
The accident took place near the town of Rafiganj
and fifteen of the train’s eighteen cars
fell from the tracks.
Two of them went into the river below, sealing
the fates of the passengers trapped inside.
The powerful impact from the crash had also
caused people from other carriages to be thrown
into the river.
The region’s poor roads hindered the efforts
from rescuers and local military personnel.
The rainstorms which had occurred prior to
the derailment had made the roads almost inaccessible.
By morning, with the aid of local people,
around 125 passengers were pulled from the
river and taken to safety.
In the weeks that followed 130 bodies were
recovered from the river.
However since more than 50 people were still
missing it is believed that the actual death
toll is closer to 200.
Over 100 were injured in the derailment.
Several theories emerged after the accident
regarding the factors behind it.
Many of them were focused on the faulty bridge
which, as one railway employee reported, had
been seen as weak for a long time even before
the incident.
Initially it was believed that metal fatigue
and rust had caused the bridge’s structure
to shift, which in turn had caused the rails
to crack.
Later reports revealed the absence of ‘fish
plates’ which connected the rails to the
bridge, anchoring them.
Some investigators suggested sabotage.
The Naxalites, a Maoist terrorist group in
the area who had been involved in guerilla
warfare, were suspected to have stolen the
fish plates.
It was believed that they had done it in order
to force an accident as revenge for their
leaders’ recent arrest.
However, the group never claimed responsibility
for the alleged attack.
Number 2: The Stirling Bridge
One of the earliest bridge collapses ever
documented took place during the Battle of
Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297.
The bridge was a narrow wooden structure over
the River Forth, near Stirling Castle.
It served as a significant strategic point
during the First War of Scottish Independence.
The Scottish forces lead by William Wallace
and Andrew Moray confronted the combined English
forces of Hugh de Cressingham and the 6th
Earl of Surrey, John de Warenne.
Even though the Scottish forces were outnumbered,
they used the bridge as a tactical advantage.
Moray and Wallace waited for a significant
number of English troops to advance on the
narrow structure.
Then the Scottish attack commenced.
Spearmen attacked from high ground, successfully
fending off attacks from English heavy cavalry
before moving on to the infantry.
The Scots gained control on the eastern side
of the bridge thus hampering the crossing
of any English reinforcements.
Historical accounts concerning the bridge’s
collapse differ.
According to some chronicles, the Scots had
sabotaged the structure of the bridge so that
it would collapse due to the weight of the
advancing enemy troops.
Others claim that the bridge’s destruction
was subsequently ordered by Surrey upon his
retreat.
The number of casualties is unknown but it
is has been speculated that around 2000 English
troops were on the bridge when the Scots launched
their attack.
In any case, Wallace and Moray were victorious
in the Battle of Stirling Bridge and their
victory heavily rested on a strategy which
had the bridge at its core.
Number 1: The Hyatt Regency Walkway
In what is considered to be one of the deadliest
structural collapses in the history of the
United States, this disaster claimed the lives
of 114 people and injured 216.
The incident took place on the 17th of July,
1981, at the Hyatt Regency Kansas City hotel
in Kansas City, Missouri.
The hotel was opened on the 1st of July 1980.
Its most distinctive features were the walkways
which were suspended from the ceiling in the
hotel’s lobby.
They were made out of steel and glass each
weighing around 64.000 pounds and measuring
around 120 feet.
The second level walkway was aligned directly
below the fourth level walkway.
On July 17th, in the evening, approximately
1600 people had gathered in the hotel lobby
to watch and take part in a tea dance party.
At the same time 40 people were watching it
from the second walkway.
16 to 20 people were watching it from the
fourth.
A design flaw concerning the support beams
for the forth walkway and the steel tie rods
meant to carry the weight of both bridges
made it barely possible for the structures
to stand on their own.
Once people started gathering on them, they
became overloaded.
The fourth walkway collapsed onto the second
one which then collapsed onto the party below.
Those who did not die instantly were trapped
under over 60 tons of glass, steel and concrete.
The exhibition area on the ground floor was
turned into an improvised morgue.
Kansas City’s response team for natural
disasters was mobilized on the scene equipped
with earthmoving machines.
Cranes were brought at the site of the collapse
to remove the pieces of walkway in order to
release the survivors.
In order to reach those trapped under the
massive structures rescuers had to dismember
some of the dead bodies that were in the way.
A surgeon performed an emergency amputation
on a man whose leg was trapped under an I-beam.
He performed the procedure using a chainsaw.
The hotel’s sprinkler’s system was also
slowly flooding the lobby, and it could not
be stopped because it was not connected to
a public source but to water tanks instead.
This placed the survivors at risk of drowning.
Mark Williams was the last person to be rescued
alive from the wreckage.
After spending over nine hours with both legs
out of their sockets, pinned under a large
piece from a lower skywalk he was almost about
to drown.
Luckily, Kansas City’s fire chief noticed
that the lobby’s doors were holding the
water inside.
The danger of drowning was eliminated when
a bulldozer was sent to break through the
doors, letting the water out.
In the end, 29 people were rescued from the
collapsed bridges.
