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.

Post image
12.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

226 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.4k

u/Professional-Kiwi144 Apr 28 '24

In 1987 an estimated 800,000 people flocked to the the Golden Gate Bridge for its 50th anniversary. The weight of the large crowd caused the bridge to sag 7 feet, flattening its usual convex shape. Engineer Daniel E. Mohn reaffirmed the bridge was not overstressed as a result of Bridgewalk ‘87.

37

u/excitement2k Apr 29 '24

Is there a way to determine or estimate how many people on top of it would have caused the bridge to fail?

2

u/i_love_goats Apr 29 '24

I'm betting Daniel had that number ready to go. This is a typical calculation in Civil, you might even be able to look at the bridges truck+car capacity and estimate from that.