This eye-bar suspension bridge is infamous because it collapsed on Dec 15, 1967, killing 46 people. Unlike the eye-bar suspension bridges in Pittsburgh, this bridge did not have redundant eye bars because the designer thought his choice of a new high-strength steel did not require redundancy. The bridge also pioneered aluminum paint, thus its namesake color. One issue with this bridge was that there were stop lights at either end that caused a big load of traffic to regularly set on the bridge.
Given that the bridge was the pride of the community until it collapsed, it was remarkably hard finding photos of the bridge when it was still standing.
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| Photo via TheMonthman |
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| wvpublic, E-Wv, The West Virginia Encyclopedia Online Also TheMothman |
A crack in one of the eye-bars started as a result of the joint action of stress corrosion and corrosion fatigue. The crack propagated quickly on that December day because the cold steel had become brittle. (I'm learning that some steels do not require tundra cold to become brittle. Plain old Illinois cold can make some steels transition from ductile to brittle.) A silver lining of this tragedy was the passage of a federal law requiring periodic bridge inspections.
It was replaced in less than two years by the Silver Memorial Bridge.
I've looked at a few videos. I like this one because it focusses on the engineering aspects of the collapse. I don't need to watch talking heads tell me that the deaths of 46 people was a tragedy.
This video is about the eyebar suspension bridge at Dresden, OH, which still stands but has been bypassed. This video discusses this bridge because the engineer of the Dresden Bridge was the consulting engineer for this bridge.
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| Screenshot |
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| PBS Nova 3:15 video |
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