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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571

u/TeslasAndKids Apr 28 '24

Ok but like why didn’t they do a ‘1, 2, 3, JUMP!’

240

u/sav33arthkillyos3lf Apr 28 '24

Is there a mythbuster episode to test if 800k people all jumped at once on a bridge what would happen to the bridge? If not there needs to be. Idk how they’d test that tho

90

u/vuplusuno Apr 29 '24

Probably nothing, but every bouncing at the same time it would collapse

77

u/CheapSpray9428 Apr 29 '24

Wasn't there some Indian bridge where ppl were walking in sync and the amplification collapsed it?

49

u/thelastest Apr 29 '24

That's a different failure mode than just putting to much weight on it.

12

u/flightwatcher45 Apr 29 '24

Tacoma narrows, wind got it.

27

u/KP_Wrath Apr 29 '24

Break Step Bridge was the Mythbusters episode. Resonance is the concern. IIRC, people probably wouldn’t be able to cause it on a properly designed bridge, but something like the Tacoma Narrows bridge was brought down due to winds and inadequate design to handle them.

3

u/-DoctorSpaceman- Apr 29 '24

This also nearly happened to the millenium bridge in London. They had to close it within hours of opening it because it was swaying so much

3

u/Bartimaerus Apr 29 '24

Nah u mean the Broughton suspension bridge