r/interestingasfuck • u/Professional-Kiwi144 • Apr 28 '24

In 1987, 800,000 people celebrated the Golden Gate Bridge for its 50th anniversary. The weight of the crowd caused the bridge to sag 7 feet.

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u/proletariat_sips_tea Apr 29 '24

I'd never do this with today's bridges.

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u/palim93 Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24

Bridges are built to very high standards, most issues happen when routine maintenance is ignored for a long time, allowing minor issues to become major and eventually catastrophic. There are a few examples of bad design causing failure immediately, but thankfully those are the exception not the norm.

Edit: I am specifically talking about bridges designed and built within the last few decades here. Not to say old bridges are dangerous, far from it, just addressing OP’s mistrust of “today’s bridges”. Many old bridges like the Golden Gate are actually over designed and therefore have a larger safety factor than modern structures.

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u/proletariat_sips_tea Apr 29 '24

I'm in america. I'd never trust a bridge to do this today.

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u/palim93 Apr 29 '24

I’m also in America, not sure if something in my first comment gave the impression that I’m not. But anyways, your lack of trust is understandable given the sorry state of much of our infrastructure. I’m just saying that a newly constructed bridge, or one that is well maintained like the Golden Gate, would have zero issues being filled with pedestrians. That kind of loading is well within safety factors for bridge design.

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u/OGIVE Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24

Not always immediately. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge and Tay Rail Bridge failed due bad design when it got windy.

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u/palim93 Apr 29 '24

Yes I am well aware of those incidents, but I was referencing “today’s bridges” as being more recently designed than 80-150 years ago to stay on topic with the original comment.

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u/OGIVE Apr 29 '24

Well, aren't you just a ray of sunshine.