From bridges that collapsed due to nature, to one of the scariest events in human history,
here are 9 epic engineering disasters.
9.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse Bridges are both an engineering marvel and
something that causes some people to be absolutely terrified.
In fact, the fear of bridges is called Gephyrophobia.
And to be fair, it's not hard to see why.
For while bridges are often constructed to be magnificent and allow people and vehicles
to cross it unimpeded, it does make you wonder at times what would happen if they weren't.
Or, if something happened to go wrong and caused it all to collapse.
Such is what happened with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
This simple bridge was opened in 1940 to get people from A to B. But on November 7, not
even four months after it was constructed it was brought down by something many didn't
expect...the wind!
Well it was a wind force of significant strength that exposed a flaw in the bridge and that
caused it to bend and sway until eventually the whole structure just fell down.
As you can see in the video, this wasn't a simple movement, but a brutal one that forced
the bridge to be ripped apart.
The first incident occurred around 11 a.m., when concrete dropped from the surface of
the road, and just a few minutes later, a 600-foot(183m) section of the bridge broke
free!
By this time, the bridge was being tossed back and forth pretty violently.
There were even moments when the elevation of the sidewalk on one side of the bridge
was 28 feet(8.5m) above that of the sidewalk on the other side!
Even though the bridge towers were made of strong durable structural carbon steel, the
bridge proved to be no match for the wild movement, and collapsed.
The only good thing about this incident was that no people were harmed in the incident.
A dog was killed though, and that is tragic.
Regardless of the loss of life, the destruction of the bridge made many bridge builders more
respectful of nature and how it can wreck their creations.
On October 14, 1950, after more than two years of construction, a replacement bridge opened.
It is 40 feet(12m) longer than the original and the fifth longest suspension bridge in
the United States.
8.
Boston Molasses Disaster No, you didn't hear wrong, I said "Molasses
Disaster".
And yes, this really did happen.
The catastrophe happened in Boston, and it was something that few could have ever expected.
You see, on a street in Boston, there was a massive container of molasses.
In fact, it had about 2.3 million gallons of molasses in it.
So what happened?
Well, in 1919, the tank holding all that molasses collapsed, and it poured out all the thick
dark syrup into the outlying areas.
Now, lest you think that molasses isn't deadly, remember that there were literally a couple
millions of gallons of the sticky stuff in that tank.
There was so much molasses that a nearby train actually got pushed off the tracks.
And because people weren't prepared for the disaster, over 150 people were injured, and
21 died!
Death by molasses!
Which brings me to, "Who's to blame?"
Well, pretty much everyone who built that tank actually.
Immediately following the mishap, news coverage included speculation about fermentation that
produced way too much pressure inside the tank.
It was poorly constructed from top to bottom, and multiple people near the incident claim
that they heard rivets popping out that sounded like machine guns.
Plus, the tank itself was barely tested, both in terms of having things in it, and seeing
how the weather would hurt the metal.
The heat of Boston warped the tank until a crack formed, and it grew until eventually
it opened the literal floodgates.
7.
Indian Power Grid Failure For a more recent engineering disaster, let's
head to India in 2012.
During June of that year, there were some terrible monsoons, which actually arrived
much later season wise than everyone had expected.
As such, the people of India had a much bigger need.
The need for electricity!
Which is totally understandable!
However, because of the demand, a set of circuit breakers were tripped on the Bina-Gwalior
line.
And due to that, 22 states in India were blacked out, and not just for an hour or two, but
for two whole days.
It's important to remember that India has one of the biggest populations in the entire
world, second only to China.
This blackout affected a whopping 620 million people for two whole days!
You might be wondering, "how is this an engineering disaster?"
Well, it's because the system itself didn't have a backup or fallback option.
So thus it took them two whole days to get the power back up for these people that probably
really missed flushing toilets and their refrigerators keeping their food fresh..
Thankfully, after this incident occurred, the Indian government took steps to not just
better protect their electrical system, but to ensure this never happened again.
That’s probably a smart move on the government's part!
Have you ever lost electricity for that long?
What did you do?
Let me know in the comments below and while you’re at it, like this video and hit that
subscribe button too!
6.
St. Francis Dam St. Francis Dam was once located about 40
miles (64 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles in the sunshine state of California.
It was built between 1924 and 1926 as a curved concrete gravity dam in order to connect LA’s
growing need for water regulation and storage.
It spanned 1300 feet and held more than 12 billion gallons of water.
It was designed and built by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, under the direction
of its general manager and chief engineer, a self-taught American-Irish man named William
Mulholland.
From the day the dam opened in 1926, it leaked.
People in the town close by used to joke and say “I’ll see you later if the dam don’t
break.”
Little did they know how that small joke would soon become the second greatest disaster in
California history, in terms of loss of life.
Three minutes to midnight on March 12, 1928, the dam broke - releasing a 10-story-high
avalanche of water to sweep 54 miles(87km) west to the ocean.
It would take over 5 hours to get there, but there wasn’t an official warning sounded
for more than an hour after the catastrophic rupture.
The result was over 450 people killed by the flood.
Whole towns, dozens or ranches, 1200 houses, and 10 bridges were engulfed by water.
Poor design and the use of poor quality concrete, which allowed water to undermine the dam's
foundations was to blame.
The disaster marked the end of Mulholland's career.
5.
The Challenger Explosion As sad as it may sound, there are numerous
engineering disasters that I could have put here in regards to space travel.
There's the horror of the Apollo 1 mission where the astronauts were trapped inside the
shuttle while a fire burned them alive.
There's Apollo 13 where the astronauts were almost killed because of a defective part,
causing them to improvise while in space.
But few disasters can match what happened with the Challenger shuttle.
This shuttle had already been on multiple missions, and in fact, the 1986 one would've
been its tenth mission, which is why it was viewed live on television.
Also important to note was that there was a civilian among the flight crew, a first
for the program.
But 76 seconds into the flight, the shuttle exploded!
The whole world saw the disaster happen right before their eyes and everyone mourned the
loss of the 7-person crew.
How could this have happened?
It wasn't a new ship, and it was checked regularly as it should be, so what occurred on this
specific day of the launch?
After a deep investigation, it was determined that the O-rings that sealed the rocket boosters
were compromised the morning of the flight because the temperature got too cold.
Engineers had actually warned the NASA bosses about this, but it was ignored because they
felt it would be alright.
Probably should trust science and hard facts over “feeling,” for this type of thing..
It cost 7 people their lives, and millions around the world went from watching a triumph,
to witnessing a tragedy.
After this explosion, NASA shut down all manned flights into space for some time.
4.
Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse Hotels are a place where you're meant to relax
and have fun as you stay there for a work trip or while you’re on vacation.
But in 1981, one of the greatest structural tragedies in US history occurred.
For two walkways in the hotel collapsed suddenly, and it took the lives of 114 people with them.
There were also 200 people injured because of the collapse.
So how did this happen?
Well, there was a dance contest at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri.
Many people and spectators watched the event from various walkways in the hotel.
On the surface, this is fine, as the walkways are meant to support a lot of weight.
However, the engineers of these particular walkways decided to cut some corners, and
the walkways on the fourth and second floors of the hotel were not constructed to support
all the weight.
With so many people packed on them watching the dancing, it was only a matter of time
before they collapsed.
The engineers of these walkways were arrested and sent to court for crimes of gross negligence
and misconduct.
They were convicted of both counts and were stripped of their licenses - as they should
be.
3.
Hindenburg Oh the humanity.
Aviation has gone through many different phases over the years, and one of the most interesting
of them all was the arrival of blimps and zeppelins, also known as airships.
These vessels were actually engineering marvels, as it proved that as long as you had enough
light gas and the proper frame, you could float pretty much anything you wanted off
the ground.
That is, until the Hinderburg came crashing down.
The ship was supposed to be the pinnacle of airship travel, and was coming all the way
from Germany to New Jersey when it suddenly caught fire.
Within about 36 seconds the entire massive airship was gone, burned to a crisp in what
must have been one of the most terrifying things ever witnessed by man.
To this day, the destruction of Hindenburg is a piece of history just about everyone
knows about.
But why did it go up in flames?
Well, there were actually multiple causes.
The immediate cause was because there was a static discharge that happened on board
the ship as it was coming to dock.
This would not have been a bad thing on its own, however, the Hindenburg was full of Hydrogen,
which is extremely flammable.
However, as Mythbusters proved in one of their most famous episodes, the skin of the blimp
was also a factor, as the fire reacted to it and caused it to burn at a much faster
rate.
Oh, and if you're curious as to why the blimp was filled with such flammable gas, it was
because the US had an embargo against the Germans and wouldn't give them the Helium
they desired to fill the Hindenburg.
As such, they used Hydrogen, which is lighter than Helium.
Sadly, this swap, plus other factors, caused not just the death of 36 people, but also
the end of blimps as passenger craft.
2.
Titanic Surprised to see this legendary ship on here?
Well, as in all legendary stories, there's multiple sides to it.
Yes, the Titanic hit an iceberg, and there were many factors both before and after that
collision that caused it to sink, but one thing that sometimes gets ignored by people
is that despite the ship being labeled "unsinkable", there was some questionable engineering done
that made it anything but.
For example, a ship of this size had about 3 million rivets holding many things together,
right?
Well, in 2015, a set of rivets from the Titanic were found and examined.
And when they were looked over, it was revealed that they were composed of a very low grade
of iron.
That’s a big no no for an ‘unsinkable ship.’
And when the iceberg hit the titanic, the impact caused a lot of the cheap rivets to
break, and that no doubt helped speed along the process.
Another factor was the watertight compartments.
These are used on boats like the Titanic to help keep it buoyant.
The problem for the Titanic was that these compartments were not exactly sealed properly.
They were supposed to be individually sealed.
Instead, they were linked via the ceiling.
So, when the water came in, it filled up the supposedly watertight compartments, and that
added a lot of water to an already damaged ship, no doubt causing it to sink at a much
faster rate than it would have.
So yes, hitting the iceberg was the catalyst, but there were other factors that caused the
famous massive ship to sink.
1.
Chernobyl There's a lot of things I could've put at
the top of this list, but when we talk about things we hope we never have to hear about
again, it's hard to beat a nuclear disaster.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was a fully functioning nuclear plant for basically a
decade.
It was built in 1977, and was fine for years.
Then, on April 26th, 1986, a routine check of the systems started a chain reaction that
is still felt to this day.
For during that test, a power surge began, one that exposed a structural weakness in
reactor No.4 of the plant.
The surge, mixed with the weakness, caused an explosion.
This started a chain reaction of more explosions and fires that resulted in a radiation leak
from the plant.
Said radiation went into the air and the atmosphere, causing a wide range of invisible destruction,
as well as visible ones with the explosions and fire.
But one of the biggest reasons that this is on the top of my list was the fallout.
Because of the radiation being leaked into the air, the areas around Chernobyl were infected
with radiation that was way too dangerous to be around.
Nearby towns and areas had to be evacuated, people lost everything because of this.
There wasn’t a lot of time to pack their lives up - they just had to leave everything
behind.
And to this day, the closest town to Chernobyl, a place called Pripyat, is still abandoned,
and over 300,000 people had to be relocated to safer areas.
This disaster not only re-solidified the dangers of nuclear power, but proved just how disastrous
it could be if something went wrong.
Needless to say, nations all over the world buckled down on their nuclear safety protocols,
and thankfully, a nuclear disaster like this hasn't happened since.
Thanks for watching!
What did you think of these engineering disasters?
Do you know of another that could've been on my list?
Let us know in the comments!
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