Oh shit . . . . .

[vorlon13]

A contractor making some repairs unbalanced and overloaded the span near one of the towers.  Unfortunately, the bolts holding the hanger cables to the main cables were made of the wrong material and were extremely brittle.  The hanger cables snapped sequentially off the main cable in both directions from the first one that failed over a period of about 30 seconds, dropping the busy deck into the water, killing 11.

[vorlon13]

South Korea, bridge to the Gangnam District collapsed from bad welds and some material issues.  Killed over 30.

[vorlon13]

Less than 6 months after it opened, this one just north of Sioux City Iowa collapsed into the Big Sioux River.  The piers of the bridge were scoured out by rising flood waters and were dislodged.  No one was killed.  Disruption to traffic was actually minimal, the Interstate was under construction just past the next interchange to the north, so there wasn't much traffic over it.

[vorlon13]

The Tay Bridge collapse killed 60 people.  The bridge was doomed from the start, it was poorly designed, it was built with substandard materials, the bolt holes were cast instead of drilled and fitted the bolts/rivets very poorly, and the maintenance crews were not keeping up with all the beams and struts that were routinely falling off. The steam locomotive that was passing over it when it failed was retrieved from the water, refurbished and put back in service.

[vorlon13]

No fatalities, this Tennessee River bridge failed during construction.

[vorlon13]

Wu-Shi bridge failed due to movement of the piers.

[Anomalocaris]

How about the Quebec bridge over St Lawrence River? it collapsed not once, but twice, both before the bridge was even complete, killing 88 persons in the process.

The first time the bridge was so badly designed its actually load carrying capacity is only a fraction of its own weight. So it fell apart in 1907 under its own weight while still being erected. Undaunted, the Canadians began bridge anew. The second time the bridge was not badly designed, but the construction method was flawed, and one span fell into the st. Lawrence as it was being installed, killing more people.

[vorlon13]

Honeymoon Bridge, Niagara Falls,  an ice jam in 1938 damaged the steel arch bridge and it collapsed onto the ice.  No fatalities, problem was apparent before collapse and bridge was cleared.  IIRC, there is even movie footage of it falling.

[vorlon13]

Note the sag in this bridge midspan.




Repairs were unsuccessful, and possibly hastened the inevitable collapse.

[Minimalist]

Clear evidence of unintelligent design!