History Made Every Day™

The collapse of the Interstate 35 West bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis is the latest of numerous bridge tragedies in the U.S.
Click here for places to donate.

The deadliest bridge collapse in the country's history occurred on December 29, 1876, when 92 people were killed in the collapse of a railroad bridge over the Ashtabula River in northeastern Ohio. A westward bound train on the Lake Shore Railroad plowed through heavy snow to cross the bridge when passengers heard a terrible cracking sound. Within seconds, the bridge collapsed and the train fell 70 feet into the frozen stream. The cars caught fire and burned. The accident was blamed on possible fatigue of cast iron elements in the bridge's wrought iron truss. The bridge's two designers later committed suicide.

Perhaps the most famous bridge collapse was caught on camera on November 7, 1940, when the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed "Galloping Gertie," buckled during a windstorm and rocked violently before falling apart. No one was killed, but a dog trapped in an abandoned car died in collapse.

Most bridge collapses over the years have been blamed on poor construction and/or maintenance, sometimes mixed with extreme weather.

On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapsed while choked with rush hour traffic, killing 46 people. The bridge connected Point Pleasant West Virginia, and Kanauga, Ohio. An investigation blamed the defect of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain.

The failure of rusty pins caused 100 feet of Interstate 95 to fall into the Mianus River in Connecticut, on June 28, 1983. Three people were killed when their vehicles fell 70 feet.

The Schoharie Creek Thruway Bridge near Amsterdam, New York, gave way in April, 1987, killing ten people. Investigators blamed flooding, soil erosion beneath the shallow footings, and poor maintenance and inspection.

It was an earthquake, not the weather, that caused a 50-foot section of the upper deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge to collapse onto the deck below on October 17, 1989, causing one death.

Near Seattle on November 25, 1990, portions of Interstate 90's floating bridge sank into Lake Washington after sloppy renovations and hairline fractures allowed water to build up in its pontoons during a storm. No one was injured.

Still, many other bridge collapses were caused by collisions with runaway ships and barges. Fourteen people died on May 26, 2002, when a barge hit a bridge over the Arkansas River in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, forcing a 500-foot section to cave in. The Queen Isabella Causeway in Texas collapsed on September 15, 2001 when a tow boat captain lost control of a string of barges and currents drove them into a bridge support. Eight people died when their vehicles fell 85 feet into the channel.

35 people died in the collapse of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida, on May 9, 1980. The freighter SS Summit Venture hit a support column during a storm, causing six automobiles and a Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet. And on July 28, 1942, the central span of the Chesapeake City Bridge in Maryland collapsed when the tanker ship Franz Klasen rammed the drawbridge supports.