The Labor Day closure of the Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco, California due to damage is just one of many failures of bridges standing in the United States today. Accessible to traffic on November 12, 1936, the Bay Bridge today sustains approximatley 280,000 vehicles on its two decks per day. Built by the American Bridge Company, the Bay Bridge opened for traffic 6 months before the famed Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay Bridge spans 8.4 miles, is a suspension (the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders) bridge on the west span and a truss-cantilever design (trusses built from structual steel) on the east span. In 1936, it was the largest and most expensive bridge of its time, with construction costs equaling $77.6 million.

On February 11, 1968 a U.S. Navy training aircraft crashed into the eastern side of the bridge, killing both officers. One of the truss sections of the bridge was replaced due to the damage of the impact. On October 17, 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake, which measured a magnitude of 6.9 , a 50ft section of the upper deck collapsed unto the lower deck below, causing one death. The bridge was closed for just over one month and was reopened on November 18 of the same year. But bridges don't last forever, as we have seen from the full collapse in 2007 of a bridge in Minnesota. During the Labor Day weekend in September of this year strong winds caused a steel tie rod holding a brace in place to snap. That brace caused a second tie rod to crash down unto the busy expressway during rush hour. Amazingly, drivers saw the falling debris and moved quickly to avoid the colapsing cables. There were no deaths or injuries, but the bridge was closed the first weekend in September and remains closed at the writing of this article-October 29,2009. The Bay Bridge is not the first bridge in the United States to incur problems.

The first bridges built in the United States were covered wooden bridges for travel by horse, followed by steel bridges for travel by rail. The worlds first suspension bridge was a temporary footbridge built in 1816 in Philidelphia. The first railway suspension bridge was the Niagra Falls Suspension Bridge. The bridge was initially built with wood, due to the cost of steel at the time of building. The bridge stood from 1855 to 1897, the wooden trusses, however, were replaced in 1880 due to decay and rot from the moisture of the falls. The weight of trains had greatly increased by the mid 1890's and it was concluded that the original bridge could no longer safely withstand the greater weight. By August 27, 1897 the original bridge was dismantled. However, upon inspecting the cables of the bridge, at the time of demolition, the cores were found to be as strong and solid as they day they were installed.

The famed Brooklyn Bridge, in New York, completed in 1883 is one of the oldest standing suspension bridges in the United States today. Aside from complaints during the 2003 blackouts, when thousdands of residents crowded the bridge and complained of feeling it sway and hearing groaning sounds, the only deaths to occur on the bridge were in 1883, during it's buildng and shortly after it's opening to the public. On May 23, 1883, after watching the building of the monsterous bridge over the course of years, 14,000 pedestrians were invited to cross it. The great bridge,which spanned the harbor and equaled the height of the tallest buildings at that time must have been quite overwhelming if not frightening. One week later, on Memorial Day, a woman fell on the stairs, which caused her friend to scream. Upon hearing the woman scream, the crowds of courious sightseers assumed that the new bridge was about to collapse from the enormous weight placed upon it by all the observers. Panic ensued and people sought to escape the bridge in any possible means they could. 12 people died and 36 were seriously injured in the charge. In addition to the 27 fatalities during the building of the bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge had a very grim beginning. Despite it's age the Brooklyn Bridge has had no occurences of failure since it's opening.

Another of America's famed bridges is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. The six lane bridge is a combination of suspension, truss arch and truss causeway. The Golden Gate Bridge, unlike the Oakland Bay Bridge is maintained by (as well as owned by) the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. The Oakland Bay Bridge is maintained by CalTrans (California Department of Transportation). The Golden Gate Bridge is quite famous, having appeared in several movies and being a structure synonomous with San Francisco. At it's time of completion, May 27, 1937, it was dubbed the longest suspension bridge span in the world, even surpassing the newly completed Bay Bridge. Since that time, eight other bridges have surpassed the Golden Gate Bridge. As with Architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Golden Gate Bridge has been admired by many as being a fascinating and beautiful piece of engineering. Designated as fifth in 1999, on the "List of America's Favorite Architecture", by the American Institute of Architects. The cost of construction of the bridge was $35 million, far below the cost of completion of the Bay Bridge. Painted orange, in contrast to the silver and black bridges of it's day, the color also adds to the bridges unique Art Deco design.

Only 11 men lost their lives on the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, which was a record for that period. A newly devised safety invention was used and saved the lives of 19 men. It was a net suspended under the floor. Soundly built and tenaciously maintained, the Golden Gate Bridge has had no incidents of decay or failure causing injury or death. In fact, after the closure of the Bay Bridge due to damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta eathquake (the largest quake to hit the region since 1906), the Golden Gate Bridge picked up the slack of the detoured commuters. On October 27, 1989 an assounding 162,414 commuters were recorded crossing the Golden Gate in a single day. Again, with the 2009 closure of the Bay Bridge, the great Golden Gate Bridge has seen significant traffic increases. During the 72 years of her life, the Golden Gate Bridge has never been closed or received damage due to the many earthquakes inudating the area. The Bridge has been closed three times for wind gusts exceeding 70 miles an hour as a precaution. It was also closed briefly for visits by Franklin D. Roosevelt and French President Charles DeGaulle. The last closing of the bridge was on May 28, 1987 for it's fiftteeth birthday, in which over 300,000 pedistrians crowded unto the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge, once thought to withstand any magnitude of earthquake, was recently found to be vulnerable to complete structural failure (i.e. collapse), triggered by the failure of supports of the 320 foot arch over Fort Point. A $392 million program has been initiated to improve the structure's ability to withstand such an event and receive only repairable damage. The completion of this improvement is scheduled for 2012.

A strange fact about the Golden Gate Bridge is that the consulting engineer during it's construction was Leon Moisseiff, the primary engineer and designer of the catasrophic Tacoma Narrows Bridge built in 1940. While Moisseiff's "deflection theory" (construction of a thin, narrow roadway that would flex in the wind, greatly reducing stress by transmitting forces via suspension cables to the bridge towers) was implemented on the Golden Gate Bridge, it was actually Charles Alton Ellis, which as original senior engineer, who must receive the credit for the final composition of the Golden Gate Bridge. While the "deflection theory" was implemented on the Golden Gate Bridge and faired well, its results in relation to the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge did not perform in like manner.

While the sturdy and well built Golden Gate Bridge has enjoyed no failings of structure, it has seen it's toll of fatalities. Although not due to the deterioration of the structure. The deck of the aesthetically pleasing bridge sits 245 feet over the San Francisco Bay. A factor that has given the Golden Gate Bridge the distinction of being the most popular place in the United States, as well as in the world to commit suicide. There is no record of successful suicide jumps since 1937, as many were not witnessed. People have been known to travel to the bridge to commit suicide. It takes approximatley 4 seconds to hit the water at a rate of 86 miles an hour. The recorded jumpers have a 98% fatality rate. Of those who actually survive the initial impact, they most likely drown or die of hypothermia in the cold water. The water may be as cold as 47 degrees. As of 2006, only 26 known to have jumped, survived, with the California Highway Patrol successfully talking down 70 individuals that year. In 1979, one man that survived the jump, swam to shore and drove himself to the hospital to find that he had broken several of his vertabrae.

Precautions to discourage the suicide jumpers have been implemented. Suicide hotline phones have been installed, staff patrols have been set up to monitor the bridge as well as iron workers have donated their time by talking to or wrestling down suicidal people. The bridge is now closed to pedestrians at night with cyclists being allowed to cross, but having to be buzzed in and out at the gates, after crossing. On October 10, 2008 it was approved 14 to 1 by the Golden Gate Board of Directors to install a stainless steel net below the bridge as a suicide deterrent. The final cost to be as much as $50 million. The cost of the net has delayed it's construction.

The Golden Gate Bridge is the worlds most popular (used only for lack of a better term) bridge to commit suicide, it is followed by the George Washington Memorial Bridge (also known as the Aurora Bridge) in Seattle, Washington. This bridge sits 167 feet above the water. The third most popular bridge to commit suicide from is the Coronado Bridge in San Diego, California. Completed on August 3, 1969, it sits over 200 feet above the water at it's highest point allowing Naval ships to pass under. A prestressed concrete/steel bridge, the five lane Coronado Bridge enjoyed the title of being the longest box girder bridge in the world until it was surpassed by a bridge built in China in 2008. Between 1972 and 2000, more than 200 suicides have been recorded as occuring from the bridge, but as with the Golden Gate Bridge, many have no doubt gone unwitnessed.

One of the biggest factors for damage to a suspension bridge is the wind. One of the most dramatic examples of the effects of wind on a suspension bridge is the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, located in Tacoma, Washington. After it's completion and inspection, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was open for traffic on July 1, 1940. At the time of it's completion, it was the third largest suspension bridge, not only in the United States, but in the world. The first and second largest being the Golden Gate Bridge in California and the George Washington Bridge connecting New York to New Jersey. The initial budget for the bridge was $8 million with construction beginning September 27, 1938. The budget to build the bridge was quite modest, especially in contrast to the elaborate $77 million budget of 1936 allotted for the Bay Bridge. Ironically, the designer and consulting engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge was Leon Moisseff. Moisseff held the title of lead engineer on the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge project. The first bridge designed by Mr. Moisseff as leading engineer, he dubbed the Tacoma Bridge as the "most beautiful bridge in the world". Unfortunatley, due to the meager budget allocated to complete the Tacoma bridge, corners were cut. Moisseff proposed the use of smaller girders, which cut construction costs and gave the bridge a more graceful appearance. The final cost of construction was just $6.4 million and the total time of construction merely 19 months. Planners concluded that the bridge would need to service fairly light traffic volumes, which resulted in the requirement for two lanes. The concluded width of the bridge was merely 39 feet, which was exceedingly narrow, expressly in relationship to the length. The decision to use such narrow girders made the bridge unstable. Even a mild wind would cause the bridges center span to visibly rise and fall from 4 to 5 feet. Even the builders felt the movement from the wind and gave the bridge the nickname "Galloping Gertie".

On the morning of November 7, 1940, the winds were recorded at approximatley 40 miles an hour. The bridge as before, swayed in the wind. But these were not mild, nor moderate winds. At 40 miles an hour, the winds were strong, but should not have been strong enough to be the demise of a great bridge, built just months prior. At 11:00 am, Leonard Coatsworth and his Cocker Spaniel, Tubby, started across the bridge. According to Coatsworth, the bridge began to sway violently and he almost immediatley lost control of his car. He jammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car, only to be thrown facedown to the asphalt by the severe fluctuation of the entire structure. Coatsworth crawled, as fast as he could to solid ground. Clinging diligently to the very ground beneath him, his hands and knees were bloody and torn. He was able to run the last few feet to the toll booth, as he heard the cracking of concrete beneath him. Coatsworth reached the toll booth just in time to see the bridge collapse and plummet 195 feet into the water below, taking with it his car and his dog. Barney Elliott, a local owner of a camera shop happened to be in the area and filmed Coatsworth exiting his car and crawling to safety and the subsequent collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. In 1998, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. The films preservation serves as a cautionary tale and is still shown today to Engineering and Architectural students. Due to a shortage of materials during World War II, the rebuilding of the Tacoma bridge took 10 years. Upon completion in 1950, the new bridge was dubbed "Sturdy Gertie." Due to the increase in population the bridge built in 1950 was no longer able to accommodate the increased vehicle capacity. Sturdy Gertie was reconfigured to carry westbound traffic, while a new, parallel bridge was constructed to carry eastbound traffic. It's completion date was July 15, 2007.

Other bridges that have collapsed or needed immediate repair in or near the United States are The Honeymoon Bridge, in Niagra Falls, Canada in 1938. At it's completion, it was one of the world's largest Arch Bridges (a good example of an Arch Bridge is the London Bridge). During the winter of 1938, the Niagra River flooded with water, containing huge chunks of ice, damaging the bridges supports and causing it to wash away into the gorge. The successor bridge, named the Rainbow Bridge, featured elevated supports, maintaining the bridges lowest span 50 feet above the water, 28 feet higher than the old bridge. Fortunatley, the bridge had been closed by officials, forseeing the collapse. This resulted in no injuries or fatalities.

In 1967, Silver Bridge in West Virginia, collapsed, sending 46 commuters to a watery grave. The first suspension bridge to hang from a linked chain of steel bars, rather than the customary wire cables. Inspectors could not reach the steel chain. But even if they could have reached it, they did not have the means to detect the crack that had formed in one of the links. On December 15, 1967, the damaged link and the chain attatched to it, snapped, sending the bridge and the vehicles traveling on it, into the Ohio River. Engineers are in the process of developing sonar devices to detect these type of cracks. Unfortunatley, they have not produced a completed device as of yet.

Initially built in 1929, but not coming to full completion until 1951, New York's Elevated West Side Highway had become inadequate to sustain the 130,000 motorists that traveled it each day. Unmaintained, pieces of facade began to crumble from the structure. The bridge was closed at the time of collapse. On December 16, 1973, a contractor was traveling on the bridge when a part of the bridge buckeled and fell. The contractor's loaded dump truck plummeted with the bridge, fortunatley he was uninjured.

On June 28, 1983, the Mianus River Bridge in Connecticut produced an eerie wail just prior to breaking apart and falling into the river. Built in 1958, a fracture, undetected, of a concealing pin, was to blame. Three were killed, as their cars crashed 70 feet into the river below. Three others were seriously injured. Fatalities were at a minimum as the collapse occured at 1:30am, when traffic was at a minimum on the normally crowded highway. In the investigation, it was found that corrosion produced rust in the formation within the bearing on the pin. The investigation cited water buildup due to inadequate drainage as the cause. It was determined that 10 years prior to the collapse, a road maintenance crew deliberatley blocked the drains and failed to unblock them when the maintenance was complete. In addition to this finding, it was also determined that the State of Connecticut maintained an inadequate number of engineers to perform inspections for the numerous bridges within the state. With only 12 engineers to inspect the states 3,425 bridges.

During the evening rush hour, at 6:05pm, on August 1, 2007, the 8 lane, I-35W Mississippi River Bridge, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed into the river and unto the river banks beneath. 13 lives were lost and 145 injured. Approximatley 100 cars and 18 construction workers (performing road maintenance at the time) were involved. At the collapse of the bridge, many of the victims fell up to 115 feet to the ground below. Open to traffic in November of 1967, constructed as a truss arch bridge, at the time of collapse was Minnesota's fifth busiest bridges, carrying approximatley 140,000 vehicles per day. In 1990, the federal government gave the bridge a "structurally deficient" rating, citing corrosion in it's bearings. In 2007, approximatley 75,000 bridges in the United States had received this rating by the federal government. In 2001, a civil engineering report was performed by the University of Minnesota, in which cracking in the cross girders at the end of the approach spans had been located. In 2005, the bridge was again found "structurally deficient" and in need of replacement by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bridge Inventory database. On June 15, 2006, an inspection found cracking and fatigue. On August 2, 2007, a day after the collapse, Minnesota state governor, Pawlenty, stated that the bridge was scheduled for replacement in 2020. In December 2006, the bridge was scheduled to receive steel reinforcements. The project was cancelled in January 2007, when it was decided that the drilling would actually weaken the bridge, possibly causing it to collapse. In the weeks prior to the collapse, four of the eight lanes had been closed for resurfacing. Over 578,000 pounds of construction equiptment and supplies occupied the already fragile bridge.

Due to constant build up of 'black ice', causing several collisions and spin outs, as of 2000 the bridge was continually sprayed with potassium acetate. Initially, this was thought to be the cause of the collapse. The final findings of the investigation, which ensued in the months after the collapse of Bridge 9340 (the official name), stated that the gusset plates were corroded and undersized. The gusset plates were also found to be inadequate to compensate for the weight increase of the load, which had increased considerably since completion of construction in 1967. The investigation revealed that a June 2003 inspection showed photos of bowed gusset plates. In the final inspection, dated November 13, 2008, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the primary cause for collapse, was under sized gusset plates. In addition, other contributors were the accumulation of more than 2 inches of concrete added to the road surface over a period of several years, increasing the dead load by 20%. Another contributing factor was the extrordinary weight of the construction equiptment and supplies, equaling more than 578,000 pounds.

With the United States struggling economically as of 2009, it is not foreseeable that funding for bridge maintenance or repair would be a primary concern. Yet, as of 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, there are 116,145 bridges in the United States deemed as "structurally deficient." With 15,302 of these bridges being in the state of Texas alone, followed closely by the heavily populated state of California, with 7,467. In California, with a population (according to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2008) that exceeds 36,756,666, one catastrophy, such as an earthquake could collapse a number of these deficient bridges. Taking with it a huge loss of life, depending upon the time of the disaster. Fortunatley, as with the Bay Bridge during the 1989 quake, the damage and loss of life has been minimal.

But has the loss of life from these previous collapses been minimal? Ask the families of the people who have lost their lives to these tragedies, if the loss of their loved one should be considered minimal. Just the loss of one is not acceptable, especailly knowing that in all cases, routine inspections and repairs could have prevented these deaths. However, it is all a case of funding and as stated before, with our economic situation, it is not a probable option to repair and espeically replace these costly structures.

Beware next time you use one of America's bridges as transportation, check to see if it is on the list of those deemed "structurally deficient" before making the decision to cross it.