List of bridge disasters

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Bridge disasters include (in chronological order):

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

1 Catastrophic collapses
2 Disasters in date order
3 Unknown Date
4 Accidents during construction
5 Accidents in fiction
6 See also

[edit] Catastrophic collapses

Bridge	Town	Country	Date	Construction type, use of bridge	Reason	Number death/injuries	Damage	Remarks
Stirling Bridge	Stirling	Scotland	September 1297	Beam and trestle over the River Forth	Overload by attackers during the Battle of Stirling Bridge	Unknown, attacking forces defeated	Bridge rendered unusable	Collapse may have been assisted by defending forces.
Dee bridge	Chester	England	May 24, 1847	Cast iron beam over the River Dee	Overload by passenger train	5 killed	Bridge rendered unusable	Collapse due to faulty design.
Angers Bridge	Angers	France	April 16, 1850	Suspension bridge over Maine River	Resonance of soldiers led to collapse	226/?	Bridge total damage	Marching columns should break step when crossing bridges.
Yarmouth Bridge	Great Yarmouth	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	May 2 1845	Suspension	People had crowded onto the bridge to see a circus clown go down the river in a barrel pulled by geese. The weight of people shifted as the barrel passed underneath, the suspension chains on the south side snapped and the bridge deck tipped over.	79 people drowned, mainly children.	Suspension chains snapped due to overload.	[1]
Tay Rail Bridge	Dundee	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	December 28, 1879	Continuous girder bridge, wrought iron framework on cast iron columns, railway bridge	Insufficient consideration of the wind load, inadequate construction, collapsed because of the stresses caused by a storm	75+/0	Bridge unusable, piers partly reused, train damaged	Locomotive was saved from the Tay and was still in use 19 years later known as "The Diver".
Québec Bridge	Quebec	Canada	August 29, 1907	Cantilever bridge, steel framework, railway bridge	Collapsed during construction	74/11	Bridge completely destroyed
Theodor-Heuss-Rhine River Bridge	Ludwigshafen	Germany	March 1940	Bridge of concrete, Motorway bridge	Collapsed during construction	?/?	Bridge totally destroyed	Resulted in delay in completion of the motorway crossing of the Rhine until 1953
Tacoma Narrows Bridge	Tacoma, WA	USA	November 7, 1940	Road bridge, cable suspension with plate girder deck	Aerodynamically poor form resulted in resonance	0/0	Bridge partially destroyed, one car lost, and one dog killed	Became known as "Galloping Gertie", in the first 4 months after opening up until its collapse under a previously unseen resonant mode. Since that time all new bridges have been modelled in wind tunnels.
Chesapeake City Bridge	Chesapeake City, MD	USA	July 28, 1942	Road bridge, vertical lift drawbridge	Tanker ship Franz Klasen rammed the drawbridge supports, causing collapse	?/?	Central span completely destroyed	Bridge replaced by high-level tied-arch bridge in 1949
The bridge at Remagen	Remagen	Germany	March 17, 1945	Truss railroad and pedestrian bridge	Collapse due to previous battle damage incurred March 7, 1945	28 U.S. soldiers	Total destruction	Capture of intact bridge offered significant short term tactical advantage to Allied forces. Collapse was not strategically significant due to placement of parallel floating bridges during the previous week
Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash	Wealdstone	United Kingdom	October 8, 1952	Pedestrian footbridge	Struck by train(s) during accident	112 dead 340 injured	Total destruction	It is not recorded how many casualties were due to the bridge collapse
Tangiwai railway bridge	Tangiwai	New Zealand	December 24, 1953	Railway bridge	Damaged by lahar minutes before passenger train passed over it.	134/151	Bridge destroyed
General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge	Maracaibo	Venezuela	April 6, 1964	Road bridge	Ship collision	7	2 section collapsed	Currently in Operation
Silver Bridge		USA	15 December 1967	Road bridge, chain link suspension	Material fault and Corrosion	46/9	Bridge and 37 vehicles destroyed
West Gate Bridge	Melbourne	Australia	October 15, 1970	Road Bridge	Collapse during construction	35	112 metre span between piers 10 and 11 collapsed	Section sprung back and collapse during attempts to remove a buckle cause by a difference in camber of 4.5 inches
South Bridge Koblenz	Koblenz	Germany	10 November 1971	Road bridge	Bridge bent into Rhine	13/?	Bridge completely destroyed
Reichsbrücke	Vienna	Austria	August 1, 1976	Road bridge with Tram	Column fractured	1/0	Bridge, one bus and a lorry destroyed, ships damaged	Concrete of the column had never been examined, was internally totally destroyed; "higher force"
Tasman Bridge	Hobart	Tasmania, Australia	January 5, 1975	Bridge of concrete, Motorway bridge	Ore freighter Lake Illawarra collided with pylons. Section of bridge collapsed onto frieghter. Four cars fell into the river.	7 ship crewman and 5 motorists killed	2 pylons and three sections of bridge collapsed, ore freighter sank, 5 cars fell into river	City of Hobart was split in two. Residents living in the east were forced to make a 50km trip to the CBD via the next bridge up north. Bridge was reconstructed and reopened on October 8, 1977
Almö Bridge	Stenungsund	Sweden	January 18, 1980	Bridge with bow built of concrete	Ship collision	8/?	Bridge and several cars destroyed
Sunshine Skyway Bridge	near St. Petersburg, FL	USA	May 9, 1980	Steel Cantilever Bridge	Ship collision	35/1	1200 ft. of southbound span, several cars and a bus destroyed	Demolished and replaced with cable-stayed bridge
Mianus River Bridge	Greenwich, Connecticut	USA	June 28, 1983	Interstate 95 (Connecticut Turnpike) over the Mianus River	Metal Fatigue/Deferred Maintenance	3/5	100-foot (30 meter) section of the northbound lanes fell into the Mianus River	Collapse due to failure of the Pin and Hanger assembly supporting the span.
Aschaffenburg Main River Freeway Bridge	Aschaffenburg	Germany	1988	Bridge of Motorway A 3 over River Main	Error in construction	1/0	Bridge total damage	Partial collapse at Repetitive sliding
Bridge over railway line at Eschede	Eschede	Germany	June 3, 1998	Road bridge	Train disaster	101/105		Destruction by train crashing on pillar, killed and injured people were train passengers
Loncomilla Bridge	near San Javier	Chile	November 18, 2004	Concrete bridge for vehicle traffice over Maule River	The structure was not build on rock, but rather on fluvial ground.	0/8	Partial collapse	Bridge was later repaired
Motorway bridge at Almuñecar, Province of Granada, Spain (search correct name of bridge)	Almuñecar	Spain	November 7, 2005	Motorway bridge	Construction, accident, reason unknown	6/3		A 60 metre long part fell 50 metre deep
Viaducto No.1 Caracas - La Guaira motorway Tacagua, Venezuela	Tacagua	Venezuela	January 8, 2006	Motorway bridge	Various factors	0/0	Bridge rendered unusable	Demolished, it will be replaced with a new one

[edit] Disasters in date order

Dee bridge, 1847 - 5 killed.
Angers suspension bridge, 1850 - 220+ soldiers killed when bridge collapsed due to harmonic frequencies caused by column marching in step.
Wooton Bridge Collapse, 1861 - Two killed as goods train falls through base of bridge.
Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster, 1876 - 92 killed.
Tay Rail Bridge, 1879 - 75 died in collapse, bridge not planned for high winds.
Point Ellice Bridge, 1896 - 47/53/50--60 died (reports vary), overloaded tram car collapses central span.
Appomatox River Drawbridge Bus Accident, 1935 - 14 killed when bus drove across the drawbridge when it was open.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, Washington, 1940 - 1 dog killed.
Tangiwai disaster, 1953 New Zealand - 151 died when a rail bridge over the Whangaehu River was washed away by a lahar.
Heron Road Bridge, 1966, Ottawa - 9 killed
Silver Bridge, 1967 - 46 killed in sudden collapse.
West Gate Bridge, 1970, Melbourne - 35 killed, during construction.
Tasman Bridge, 1975 - 12 killed when a ship struck the bridge.
Reichsbrücke, 1976 - 1 killed
Benjamin Harrison Bridge, 1977 - no fatalities, ship strike
Granville railway disaster, 1977 - 83 killed when derailed train knocked down a road overbridge.
Sunshine Skyway Bridge, 1980 - 35 killed by ship strike.
Tjörn bridge, 1980, Sweden - 8 killed - ship strike.
Hyatt Regency walkway collapse, 1981 - 114 killed, more than 200 injured
Mianus River Bridge, 1983, Connecticut - 3 killed
Schoharie Creek, 1987 - 10 killed.
Glanrhyd Bridge, Carmarthen, 1987 - Train washed off railway bridge by flood waters, 4 killed including 1 school boy drowned trying to rescue passengers.
Hatchie River Bridge (Hwy US-51) collapse, 1989, Tennessee - 8 killed when a 3 span section of the bridge failed due to scour of the bridge foundations.
San Francisco Bay Bridge, 1989 - 1 killed when Loma Prieta earthquake caused upper deck of eastern truss to collapse onto main deck carrying traffic.
Cypress Street Viaduct, 1989 - 42 killed during Loma Prieta earthquake.
Winkley Bridge, 1989 - 5 killed when 1912 bridge collapsed from 40 students swinging on it.
Big Bayou Canot train disaster, 1993 - 47 killed when railway bridge hit by barge.
Seongsu Bridge, 1994 - 32 died and 17 injured.
Koror-Babeldaob Bridge, 1996 - at least 1 killed following strengthening work.
Maccabiah Bridge Tragedy, 1997 - 4 killed
Eschede train disaster, 1998 - 101 killed - derailed train knocked down overbridge.
Interstate 794 Hoan Bridge,Wisconsin, 2000 - Partial failure, no injuries
Hintze-Ribeiro Bridge, Portugal, 2001 - 59 killed in three cars and one bus after the collapse of the bridge.
Kadalundi River rail disaster, India, 2001 - 57 drowned when 140-year old rail bridge collapsed.
Rafiganj rail disaster, India, 2002 - 130 died when terrorists sabotaged rail bridge, causing crash.
The I-40 Bridge Disaster, 2002 - 14 killed in barge strike.
Interstate 95 bridge over Howard Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut, March 2003 - Fire resulting from fuel truck crash melted the bridge superstructure, resulting in partial collapse. No fatalities; driver of the truck escaped with minor injuries.
Sgt. Aubrey Cosens VC Memorial Bridge, 2003 - Partial failure, no one hurt.
Veligonda rail disaster, India, 2005 - 114 killed when flood washed rail bridge away.
Autoroute 19 Overpass Collapse, Laval, Quebec,Canada, 2006 - Five dead, six injured
Run Pathani Bridge Collapse, 80 km east of Karachi, Pakistan - Bridge collapse during the 2006 monsoons.

[edit] Unknown Date

King Street (Melbourne) bridge – collapse

[edit] Accidents during construction

Quebec Bridge, 1907 - 82 killed in collapse during construction
Sandö Bridge, 1939 - 18 killed in collapse during construction
Svinesund Bridge, 1942 - Sweden and Norway
Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, 1958 - 27 killed in construction collapse.
Heron Road Bridge, 1966 - collapsed during construction, killing 9.
Cleddau Bridge,1970 - collapsed during construction, killing 4.
West Gate Bridge, 1970 - collapsed during construction, killing 35.
Südbrücke Koblenz, 1971 - 9 killed.
Sikorsky Bridge replacement project, Connecticut - collapse occurred in February 2004 during demolition of the original 1940 span; one worker died when the crane he was operating was knocked off of its barge by falling steel.
Motorway bridge in Almuñécar (Province of Granada, Spain) 2005 - part collapsed during construction, killing 6 workers.