Silver Bridge Disaster

[ddillard 2]

The Silver Bridge, named because of its shiny aluminum paint, was built and completed in May of 1928 as a privately-owned toll bridge. It was later purchased by the State of West Virginia.  The bridge connected Point Pleasant, WV across the Ohio River to Kanauga, Ohio.

The bridge was considered to be an engineering marvel at the time of its construction because of its use of twin flat steel plates with eyelets located at each end to form the suspension component of the bridge instead of woven steel cables. These steel plates were joined together with joints containing a metal pin which held this suspension component together,  very much like a bicycle chain is held together by links.  Unfortunate in this design is the fact that if even one of these joints were to fail the whole suspension system would also fail and this is what caused the Silver Bridge to collapse on December 15, 1967 during a Christmas shopping rush hour. The collapse occured around 5:04 pm on this Friday evening taking with it 64 people in 31 vehicles,  of which 18 survived and 46 lost their lives.

Investigators came to the conclusion that Joint C13,  which is located on the north side just west of the Ohio tower, had a fracture which had become corroded over the years and gave way to the heavy stresses put upon it during that evening.  Most of the traffic on the bridge at the time of the disaster were on the westbound lane heading into Ohio,  the exact location of the ill-fated joint.  An eyewitness reported later that she heard a "crackling" noise and spotted metal debris on the roadway underneath the Ohio tower just 1/2 hour before the collapse.

Because of this disaster the federal government has set up bridge inspection guidelines that were not in place previously.

A new bridge was constructed and completed within two years following the collapse.  It is located 1/2 mile to the south of the old bridge and serves as a link for U.S. 35 between Ohio and West Virginia.

 

All of the above information was provided by actual local newspaper accounts from that era.

 

 

 

This happened in my home town and as an interesting note is what the movie "Mothman" was based on. Below are a few pictures. I have always been interested in this incident and wrote a book on it when I was in high school.

 

Click for Spoiler:

 

 

 

 

Click for Spoiler:

 

 

 

Click for Spoiler:

[Luvin1stdegree 0]

I saw that movie and loved it. I had no idea the bridge collapse was an actual event and not fiction. Thanks for sharing.

[cptwright 1]

you live in the town where the mothman prophecies have the most bearing? that was a pretty good movie, i just wonder how all the stories really came about

[ddillard 2]

you live in the town where the mothman prophecies have the most bearing? that was a pretty good movie, i just wonder how all the stories really came about

I don't live in the town anymore, but I grew up there and my father still lives there. The stories, according to my research, actually did start shortly before the bridge came down, and then continued to grow after the incident. The belief as to whether the stories are true or not is pretty much split down the middle as to who believes what. It has always been to be strange that the stories began before the event, then there were no longer any reports of the sightings after the bridge fell.