Quote:Having traveled over the bridge thousands of times, I can't imagine what it would have been like to be on it when the impact occurred.  The kind of impact that would have been required to shear that support member the way it did must have really shaken the bridge. 

 

The one engineer who was talking about how the difference between staying upright and collapse was a matter of a couple of feet is pretty scary.  Never would have expected the Mathews Bridge to be even remotely vulnerable to something like that.

 

Considering the twisting that occurred as a result of the damage, it's a pretty amazing little bit of engineering that had to be done to get everything back into alignment, and then repair the damage. 

 

A person in the video mentioned the Skyway Bridge, and I remember that one, as I lived in the area.  The old Skyway was the same type of bridge, and it folded like a cheap lawn chair when it was hit.  Until the new bridge was opened in '87, traffic had been routed bi-directionally  over the remaining span. I remember riding over that bridge looking at the collapsed span.  You'd see bridge, then nothing.  It was creepy. 

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