Fun Facts About Bridges and Such

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* Of the one million bridges in regular use in the United States, one out of every five is vulnerable to failure.

* Of these one million bridges, on average, a bridge sags, buckles, or collapses every other day. (Most of these are smaller bridges, but some are major bridges with high traffic.)

* During the building of the Great Bridge in Melbourne, union members organized a strike one afternoon when lunch consisted of fish and chips instead of the ordered hamburgers. (And they wondered why the project was seven months behind schedule!)

* In some counties in the U.S., the load hazards on the bridges are such that children have to get out of the bus and walk across the bridge with the empty bus following them, in order to avoid a collapse.

* The agent who had insured the Tacoma Narrows Bridge had pocketed the money instead of obtaining the policy, assuming that such a massive structure would not need insuring. This man is now in jail.


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