Burn Your Bridges Trivia Quiz

Answer: Francis Scott Key Bridge

The Francis Scott Key Bridge opened in 1977 and provided a vital eastern crossing of the Patapsco River bypassing central Baltimore. On the night of the collapse, the container ship "Dali" lost power and control and drifted into one of the bridge's support piers. Within seconds of the collision, several of the bridge's spans collapsed into the river.

The bridge was mostly empty at the time apart from a maintenance crew working on the roadway, with six members of the crew being killed and two others being rescued from the river.

Answer: Galloping Gertie

When the bridge began to sway on the fateful day, there were at least two vehicles on the span. All people on the bridge managed to exit their vehicles and make their way to safety on foot, crawling and battling their way across the violently swaying roadway. Remarkably, the only casualty was a cocker spaniel called Tubby that was left behind in one of the vehicles and was unable to be rescued.

Perhaps even more remarkably, the collapse was filmed by two cameras operated by the owners of a camera shop in Tacoma. The striking footage is now widely available, and fascinating to watch if you haven't seen it before.

Galloping Gertie lives on in infamy in science and engineering circles as an example of mechanical resonance, though the actual physics that caused the collapse involved much more complicated aerodynamic factors.

Answer: Sydney

The primary cause of the Granville rail disaster was poor fastening of the track on a curve leading up to the bridge, which allowed the left front wheel of the locomotive to derail. Further factors included the span having triple the designed weight, poor track maintenance, and lack of reinforcement of the bridge's support pillar.

The disaster lead to substantial improvements in rail maintenance in Sydney.

Answer: Teenage boys playing inside the structure dropped a burning torch, setting the bridge alight

The Britannia Bridge was originally opened as a railway bridge. It had survived 120 years until the fateful day when a group of teenage boys entered the structure. They set alight a piece of paper to illuminate the structure in search of bats. They dropped the paper into a crack, which set alight the tar-coated wooden roof of the structural tubes.

The fire was impossible to control given the height of the bridge, location of the fire deep within the structure, and lack of suitable water supply. There is footage of the fire showing the extent of the flames across the entire span. Once the fire burned itself out, the bridge was still standing, however it had suffered significant compromise to its structural integrity which rendered it unusable. After being rebuilt, a roadway was added to the bridge, now viewed as a silver lining to the disaster.

Answer: New Zealand

The crater lake of Mount Ruapehu was dammed by tephra, a fragmental material produced from previous volcanic eruptions. This natural tephra dam failed, creating a rapid mudflow (also called a 'lahar') in the Whangaehu River which was spanned by the bridge.

The flows destroyed one of the bridge's piers, causing visible damage. A passer-by attempted to warn the train's crew as it approached the bridge, however despite emergency air brake application, the train rolled onto the bridge, causing its ultimate collapse. 151 people died as more than half of the train fell into the river, with only a few first-class carriages and the guard and postal vans remaining on the intact track.

Answer: Minneapolis-Saint Paul

As rush hour traffic crawled along the bridge, the central span suddenly gave way, followed by the adjacent spans. A total of 111 vehicles were involved, crashing down into the river, its banks and a rail yard. The causes of the collapse took some time to unravel with no clear antecedent factor.

It was eventually determined that undersized gusset plates were used in the original construction, compounded by 2 inches of extra concrete having been laid over the years, and the extraordinary weight of peak hour traffic, construction equipment and materials resting on the bridge above its weakest point at the time of collapse.

Answer: Crimea

The Kerch Strait Bridge is a parallel pair of bridges across the Kerch Strait with a four lane road carried by one bridge, and a double-track railway carried by the other. A bridge over the strait had been proposed since the early 20th century but did not come to fruition during the Soviet era.

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the bridges were completed in 2018 and 2019. They became important in the logistics of supplying the occupying Russian military force in Crimea during the Russo-Ukrainian war escalation of 2022, making them a prime target for an attack. Though Ukraine initially denied responsibility for the attack, it later acknowledged that they had indeed ordered it.

Answer: It collapsed again during a prolonged construction phase

The Quebec bridge collapsed twice during its 16 year construction. Since opening in 2019 it has remained intact, though it was placed on the "Top 10 Endangered Places List" in Canada in 2015 due to estimates that 60% of the bridge was covered in corrosive rust after its maintenance had been increasingly neglected over the years.

Answer: Pontoon / floating bridge

The Ponte das Barcas (Bridge of Boats) was constructed in 1806 and was the first permanent bridge between Porto and Gaia. Prior to its construction, crossings of the River Douro were undertaken in boats and rafts, or with previous temporary pontoon bridges established at times of great demand. The bridge comprised of 20 boats laid side by side, anchored upstream and downstream, with a roadway laid to allow passage of people, animals and carts.

Disaster stuck on 29 March 1809 during the First Battle of Porto between Portuguese and invading French Napoleonic troops. As the French advanced, thousands of Portuguese were funnelled onto the modest bridge which could not handle the volume and mass of bodies. The exact causes of the deaths are unclear, but likely included people drowning after being pushed off the edge of the bridge, collapse of portions of the bridge, people being trampled by horses or the crowds, and direct artillery fire from soldiers on the river bank.

Answer: Floods and hydraulic action

While all options are common causes of bridge failure, hydraulic action is the most common. All bridges rely on solid foundations within the landscape, which can be undermined by floods, scouring from suspended particles in high flowing streams, or even impact from debris being carried in the water. With over 600,000 bridges in the USA alone, much effort is expended in geotechnical and engineering assessments of the structural integrity of existing bridges to predict and rectify issues before they lead to bridge failure.