Hope everyone's week is good so far! Toss a Coin to your Researcher? www.patreon.com/BrickImmortar Here's my thoughts on the Miami Surfside Collapse: kzfaq.infoUgwF1Rx-sdzpQRuV2rx4AaABCQ Here's the Minnesota Bridge Collapse from 2007: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rquAptp1vsjHnp8.html

I’m still baffled as to why the consultants had any blame here- Because they didn’t call the right guy? State government clearly had the report, and they didn’t act on it when they had it. The consultants did their job - twice recommended the same urgent repairs and TWICE it was ignored by New York.

All infrastructure requires maintenance, whether it’s made of steel, concrete, or loose stones like riprap.

There's no greater feeling than finishing a Fascinating Horror video, feeling bored, and immediately seeing one of your videos in my recommended.

Man, the poor guy whose body wasn't discovered for over 2 freaking years. I'm amazed I've never heard of this bridge collapse before now.

Repeat after me: Always drive piles into bedrock if you want what you are building to withstand the multiple structure-destroying effects of water.

Those poor people, I cannot imagine how scared they must have been in their final moments as they got snatched away. I respect dedication of the recovery teams to bring some closure to the families, I detest the lack of conscientious of the people who failed to prevent this accident.

I just missed this I was traveling back from UB to Kingston NY. I drove over it about 20 min before the collapse.. on the back I had to return to UB via route 20... I still think about it every time I travel over the new bridge...stay safe..

Most of us that get in a vehicle probably don't realize how many times we pass over these bridges and overpasses everyday never to think something this tragic could happen. It's scary to think how vulnerable we actually are.

I remember this incident well. I was living in Western New York and had a good friend who had crossed the bridge about 40 minutes before it collapsed, coming home from a visit with his parents. New York State went into panic mode and inspected every bridge in the state over the next couple of months. There were a huge number of bridges closed throughout the state and it took years to finish all of the replacements. I moved out of New York in 1992 and many bridges were still closed. It is a horrible tragedy that people had to die for the state inspectors to finally do their job after so many years of neglect. R.I.P. to all who perished that day, while your deaths were senseless they were not in vain.

The reading of the names was quite solemn and sad. Very respectful way to memorialize them.

35 years ago. Wow. I played basketball against Kristie Peck. Her and her mother were on way to a shower somewhere in Western New York that morning. Their car is the blue fury turned upside down and smashed. I don't know if they drove out for there on the bridge when it collapsed but they didn't see it until water subsided. So tragic, she was only 22 years old.

It boggles my mind that one of the victims was found in the Hudson River.

This spread footing bridge foundation clearly relies on meticulous inspection and upkeep. If state inspections become lax, there will be trouble. I hope modern bridges use piles driven deep into the bedrock.

I really have to wonder WTF was up with the repeated removal of the note about fixing the riprap... Feels like there must have been some sort of "I know better" stubborn idiot in the upper levels that kept feeling personally insulted by the reports. Can't imagine why else multiple reports of "dump some more rock around the base" was ignored.

In April of '87 I was working as a whitewater guide on the Cattaraugus Creek in Western New York. I remember the rains 🌧 and the high water that spring. I was on the river that Sunday. I came home and saw the news. I couldn't believe something like that could happen in New York State. On the New York State Thruway.

This was only a few miles away from my home in Fonda, NY. All the traffic from the Thruway was funneled through my little village on our river bridge. The heavy traffic caused the deck of our bridge to separate from the support pillars and the Fonda-Fultonville Bridge was shut down. They even had County Sheriffs stationed on either side to make sure no one even walked across it. It had to be torn down and replaced. The Schoharie creek is still a killer. About 10 years ago there was another flood that tore away the roadway on Route 5S that parallels the Thruway, a man's truck was washed into the river and he was killed. I don't trust anything along that waterway when it rains a lot.

I used to live on where the Mohawk and Hudson river meet, it’s crazy to me that the one women’s body made it all the way into the Hudson. She had to go over a giant waterfall (cohoes falls) and through multiple man-made dams and water control systems

I was in high school in upstate NY when this happened, and this was all over the local news. A news crew just happened to be shooting a report on the high water levels and flooding upstream of this bridge when it collapsed. They heard the first collapse and ran over in time to capture more of it as it happened. IIRC, three of the cars weren't on the span when it collapsed, but drove into the void as they were unable to stop in time. The slope of the highway there is such that, until you're on top of it, you wouldn't notice the bridge is missing. The near and far sides create the illusion of a continuous road. After the collapse they used the two bridges to the north, which at the time were Route 5S and an abandoned railroad bridge, to carry the re-routed Thruway until a new bridge could be constructed. You can still see some of the scars on the land from the temporary bypass diversion leading from the highway to the bridges on the east side, if you look at Google satellite view. It looks like, since then, 5S has moved to use the old railroad bridge (which is much more robust given what it was designed for) and the old 5S bridge carries the Erie Canal bike path now.

My husband Bob, worked for the NYS Thruway when this happened. On the Friday before , he had been promoted and this was his 1st assignment as a supervisor. One you never forget. I remember being in the Lake George area for a Rural Letters carrier meeting when Bob heard about this accident. Devastating for sure - So sad.

I begin to understand, why some people are comparing the infrastructure maintenance of the USA to third world countries. Unfortunately, we here in Germany are facing the similar problems. Politicians and authorities are rather dreaming of flying cabs and high-speed trains, but bridges, highways an public roads are crumbling.

I used to picnic under the replacement bridge with my family. Nice beachy area, shade from the bridge, and water for us kids to splash around in. I didn’t know about the original collapse till years later.

Having a hard time believing that the purpose and maintenance of riprap in bridge construction was not understood by civil engineers in the 1980s. Poor communication, corner-cutting, institutionalized incompetence- that I can believe.

I was there. There were students from SUNY Cobleskill that perished in that disaster. All due to the corruption of the New York state thruway authority!

I live near here but I didn’t know about this. Before my time. Interesting to learn local history.

I lived in Utica when this happened; it was our Army Reserve drill weekend. My SGT was from Amsterdam, NY and I can remember his wife calling to let him know what happened. RIP to the victims.

The funny part, well not really funny, of this is that I passed over this bridge the day before it collapsed. My family and I were on a around NY camping trip. And when it flooded again in '06ish I was stuck on the thruway between this bridge and the Amsterdam exit for 2 days and 2 nights while the thruway (90) was underwater due to the Mohawk and the creek flooding. I'm glad I had camping gear and food in my SUV. I also was with a family who were going camping them selves. We had fun making a fire on the road and the state police asked if we wanted to be moved and we told him we were fine. We had food and shelter. The family and I fed 14 people mostly truck drivers who were stuck with us. The police brought more wood and extra food. We had fun and played games, football and watched a movie or two on a sheet that we had and a power point projector. I will do that again but will have to bring more beer!

Interesting to see something on KZfaq about something that happened in your area (I live about 30-40 mins away from this bridge)

You've got such a calming voice and your information is fantastic. I'm glad I found this channel I don't know about you guys but I can't see why you'd choose to make a shallow footed and high maintenance bridge ever. Sure there were pipes in the ground, why not have the designer move the feet and add a third foot in the middle to allow said foot movement? I can't see it being cost effective to build bridges you have to keep dumping rocks at the base of

I'm learning a heck of a lot about bridge engineering from these collapse videos, probably knowledge that I will never use but fascinating nonetheless! Thanks Sam. 👍

I was going over The Tappan Zee Bridge in New York about a year before they built the new one at around 4am on the Northbound side in the left hand lane. While going over the bridge I saw part of the roadway was missing in the far right lane. I immediately stopped my Car and drove backwards and put my car 30 feet from the missing roadway and put my hazard lights on. I called 911 telling them to stop the cars from going over the Northbound side of the Bridge because there is a section of roadway missing. I grabbed a flashlight and stood behind my car waving it to stop drivers from going over that section of the bridge. At 4am there was no traffic and I successfully stopped two cars who blocked the other two lanes. The State Troopers Showed up and I showed them the missing section.

I really appreciate the way you cover these topics with both facts and compassion for the people lost in these tragedies 🙏🏽💗

Lets not forget the one important item missing from this entire story........This POS bridge was on a TOLL ROAD!! The owners of this "TOLL ROAD" are the ones at fault here. Contracting to the cheapest companies and refusing to pay up and build the bridge the right way. Not putting the base to bedrock and letting it sit on the river bed,...cheap, cheap, cheap.

The typical reaction is, It was someone's responsibility to recognize the problem but it was passed down the line until ignored. Any deficiency should Demand immediate notice to determine the importance. Even a minor safety discrepancy is a Major issue until someone who can take the blame signs off on it. How many disaster would be averted if someone was held Criminally liable? Whistleblower laws need to be applied to infrastructure flaws. The inspectors who report the flaws that are overlooked by administrators should not be the scapegoats.

I had heard of this but your version is superior to other stories about this. Your organization and presentation gave me more information without excessive length or loss of my interest.

Excellent video. I like how you make sure that lay people such as myself can understand the technical issues at hand, but at the same time don't dumb things down.

I'm loving your content! Thank you for these!

What a sad and horrific tale for those that died. Even sadder knowing the loss of life could have possibly been prevented by so many different people who could have stepped in saying there was a problem with the bridge.

I remember working at the former Amsterdam Memorial Hospital at the time when visitors came in telling us what had happened. Absolutely horrific. God rest the souls of those poor victims. So sad.

Much like the condo collapse in FLA. , the cement cracking and exposing the rebar is a serious issue. It's essentially the early warning of a failure approaching.

I remember hearing stories of people on a nearby thruway overpass screaming and waving at other cars to warn them of the impending danger of the collapsed bridge. A tractor trailer jackknifed and blocked the westbound lanes to prevent more people from driving to the collapsed bridge into the Schoharie.

The amount of effort and detail in your videos is admirable. Wish I found this channel Sooner!

Let me tell you about a cautionary tale when it comes to driving bridge pilings into sturdy bedrock. When I was watching this video at 4:58 I noticed that the pile caps on the Schorarie Creek Bridge were driven into the creek bottom and no pilings driven into bedrock. What happened in the construction of the Schorarie Creek Bridge happened on the southbound span of the old Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida when it was under construction. When the original 1954 Sunshine Skyway northbound span was built the pilings for the main piers were of steel and driven into bedrock. During construction of the 1971 Sunshine Skyway southbound span in 1969 the alarm was sounded when cracks were found in one of the main channel piers, Pier 1-S. The cause of the cracking was that the pilings - made of concrete and not steel - were driven into the soft bay bottom rather than into bedrock. The pier had to be repaired with steel pilings driven into bedrock, which is why Pier 1-S looks different than the three other main channel piers on the old Sunshine Skyway. The repair costed Florida taxpayers $3 million. Pier 2-S on the old Sunshine Skyway’s southbound span - the anchor pier that was knocked down when the Summit Venture rammed into it on 9 May 1980 - also had concrete pilings driven into the bay bottom. But there were no cracks or any other deformities noted during construction. I say this because in theory, had Pier 2-S had steel pilings driven into bedrock that anchor pier may not have been sheared off at its base upon impact. (The Summit Venture came to rest upon Pier 2-S of the northbound Sunshine Skyway span, that pier was sturdier thanks to steel pilings driven into bedrock). Now what do both the Schorarie Creek Bridge in New York State and the southbound span of the old Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida have in common? Corners got cut somewhere during construction, mainly to save money somewhere. Were soil boring studies done on Schorarie Creek to locate bedrock in which to drive the pilings down into? Compare to the southbound span of the old Sunshine Skyway where NO soil boring studies were done - instead, plans from the 1954 Sunshine Skyway span were used. Which leads us to the gold standard when it comes to bridge construction, especially over bodies of water such as Schorarie Creek or Tampa Bay: Do your soil boring studies to see how far deep is it to bedrock. Drive your bridge pilings from the pile cap down into bedrock to provide a firm footing for your bridge. Use steel pilings rather than concrete pilings.

Gotta do a video on the old Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse

Just plain Willfull neglect by NY state thruway " authority"! engineering firm notified them of the problem. The guy that kept omitting the rip rap repair over and over should have done jail time. Trust the experts! Fudge!

Why the contractors and subs were blamed for not bringing their findings to the project manager’s attention, is beyond me. Wouldn’t the proect manager be expected to read to reports submitted?

I had never heard of this before but I’m not surprised. Schoharie is in a low plain and is prone to flooding. When hurricane Sandy came through 10+ years ago the water was over the top of many of the one story houses. It took years to rebuild the community.

I enjoy the way you break everything down. It helps me understand exactly what happened, why it happened and so forth. Great voice for narration too! I just think your channel is a real gem. Keep up the good work and I do thank you for the upload!

The structure has reached its 3 decade shelf life, when it is of those, it should be maintained from time to time, or reinforcements needs to be placed for the infrastructure to be stable and safe in its near future completion/project.

Yesterday I was sad that I had watched all of your collapse series, now I'm happy for a little longer, thanks!

Thank you Sam!! Your videos are always so well done and informing. Stay strong!!

I am writing this as a testament to what I witnessed in the presence of my employer H.A Hart const. Co, during a maint check of construction equipmnent we were under the bridge observing the pilings dancing on the bedrock in the presence of a state engineer when trucks went over the bride at 65 mph the pilings would lift enough to put your fingers under the pilings .. the engineer knew this was dangerous ,but we don't know if it was related to higher ups obviously if it was nothing was done...

My husband's family is from Schoharie and his aunt still lives there. We went on a day drive to sight see and she told us about this bridge. I got to go to the Schoharie creek. This is a beautiful place. Not at all what I was expecting to see in New York. I love it there.

Thank you for your work on these videos. I recently found your channel and have subscribed! I am really interested in this topic and as someone who works with civil engineers on our projects it has really inspired me to better understand what they propose in our projects (i am a landscape architect myself). Even on much smaller projects i see over sights, alot of my work is in designing and permitting amenity centers and commercial sites and i sometimes can catch stormwater designs that dont work or have issues with it. Health, safety welfare is what i look for in reviewing plans! Keep up the good work man, you have a fan in me!

I went over that bridge headed home to Syracuse NY the day before it fell. I also went over the Green Island bridge the morning before it fell in at noon back in the late 70's. To this day I hate going over bridges

I am studying bookkeeping but find your reports fascinating.

Getting snuffed out in a Topaz… that is extra sad.

I was 8 months old when it happened and I still hear people talk about it to this day. I never heard the story until this video. Amazing. Thank you.

Dont care if I'm at work, when I see a new collapsed video I click

this is about 4 miles from my house. my father video taped the second part of the bridge falling down and the clean up.

Thanks for another of your detailed informative production.👍🏿 Outstanding reporting.🥰

And none of the negligent officials did much if any prison time.

I’m really glad you’re doing more of these infrastructure disaster videos.

I remember this very well. My friend’s husband was an engineer and involved in analyzing what happened.

I was 17 at the time and never knew or heard of this tragedy 😔😢😪😞💔😕. MAY, THEY ALL REST IN PEACE 😇✝️🙏.

I remember this one well, as above and beyond the horror of what happened to those poor people it almost doubled the trip time to and from College on breaks that year. Ended up having to loop through Pennsylvania. There was some insane rainfall that year. I remember there were some really tragic drownings.

I can't decide, listening to the absolute communication failure between entities, if this was caused by traditional negligence or gross incompetence.

Very interesting video. Very well presented.

Great vid Brick Immortar, RIP to those poor souls lost during the collapse.

Great video. You do such a great job. Very interesting and informative. ❤

A video from you and fascinating horror in one day. Im set.

Thanks - this is one of those things I partially recalled from childhood - I was always afraid the Grand Island Bridges would fall

You can still see where the interstate was directed through a field onto NY5S and then back onto 90

These videos are so helpful!

Love, love, love,these videos very detailed!

I lived in upstate NY for a while, and both this video and the Ethan Allen video took place in areas I was familiar with. Shows what a great state NY is

I'm loving this content!

Again, this is so scary to think that we rely on these 'experts' every time we cross a bridge or walk into a building that everyone has done their job right and that I am safe. It's like I'm living in denial or else I would be paranoid of everything.

It's scary to recall the fact I used to travel to little falls NY quite frequently in the 80s....particularly around that time. We used to go over that bridge all the time and on a Sunday we would be heading back to CT. My dad used to like to leave fairly early so that would have put us in the vicinity of the bridge. Spooky. I remember after the collapse they had to erect a temporary bridge, I hated going over it as a kid.

I really appreciate the detail in your videos. Excellent research and presentation. Thanks!

I'm glad they were able to prevent at least one other disaster... but they can do better! Love your videos!

First of all, love this channel!! Please keep up the great work as it is much appreciated. Secondly, I think the clip at the beginning of the fallen truss bridge heading toward the concrete bridge is here in Harrisburg. If so, it’s the Walnut St bridge (over the Susquehanna river) that fell during a winter storm and drifted over, and then under, the Market St bridge. You can actually see video footage on KZfaq of the bridge being obliterated as it is swallowed under the Market St bridge in mere seconds.

Funny coincidence. Just yesterday, I watched a piece about the Broadmeadow Viaduct (Dublin, ROI). This was a railway bridge running across the river estuary. A train driver spotted that the bridge was giving way but 'coasted' the train safely across then the bridge fell away leaving just the rails hanging in mid air. This too was caused by 'scour'. Anyone interested, google 'Broadmeadow Viaduct'. The pictures are amazing and so lucky that 100s were not killed.

I lived in Amsterdam and we used to go swimming under the original bridge. We were under that bridge the previous summer and I remember that it had neon orange spray paint all over the piers marking the areas that needed to be repaired. I don't know how much is a lot when it comes to bridge repairs, but I would consider the amount of markings to be "a lot". I never would have remembered that inconsequential (at the time) detail if the bridge hadn't collapsed less than a year later.

I remember hearing about this on Modern Marvel's Engineering Disasters many years ago. It's awesome that you gave it attention.

How dreadful, the absolute NUMBER of people/companies/ agencies that had to "eff up" for this to happen. It's incredible that engineers might risk their reputations like this...the rest? Well, same reason, $$$.

I'll point out that old-school railroad stone piers last 100s of years after the line is abandoned. You can see the piers standing long after the bridge is gone. Back in the day, and with heavier loads, they went down very, very deep. Scour simply cannot get deep enough. I'm not saying "the old ways were better," just an interesting result of massive safety factors because we just didn't know how deep we needed to go.

I remember this, I lived on the Creek at the time, I was 11 yrs old and lived less then 20 minutes from the bridge.

We were on the NY Thruway, I-90 when this happened but about 10 miles east when this happened. Schoharie Creek is usually a pretty placid waterway until we have torrential rain and in this case washed the support piers out

😳😳 this one's close to home, no pun intended. the rivers around there can pack a punch when flooded, the roads get washed out and replaced pretty regularly, but obviously that doesn't justify what happened in the slightest. i didn't even know about this despite being local my whole life before now. huh.

Also in 1987 was the collapse of the under-construction north addition to the grandstands of the University of Washington's Husky Stadium, which inspired the postcard "Gravity 1, UW 0". To my knowledge, no one was killed.

Do a video on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse in 1980

I LIVED SOME 5 MILES TOWARD SCHENECTADY OFF RT 5 IN ROTTERDAM JUNCTION....WENT UP TO SEE IT THE NEXT DAY....

You should do one on the Schoharie limo crash from a few years ago. Absolute horror all due to greed of one family.

I live in the Capital Region of NY and I remember when this happened. I was in 8th grade at the time. My dad used to work for the NYS DOT and was on the team that helped redesign that bridge after the collapse.

Your video was awesome and very imformative. I will be that guy, the backround beat is fire! It def helped me stay into this video

New favourite channel

While my grandma was alive I use to drive the thruway every weekend from Schenectady to Canajoharie to visit her. I passed over that bridge a lot back then. The collapse didn't just shut down the thruway, they also closed Rt 5S on the south side of the Mohawk river which ran parallel to that part of the highway for over a year.

Inspector: "Hey, we gotta repair this!" Technitian: "Nope." Inspector: "Hey, we gotta repair this!" Technitian: "Nope." Inspector: "Hey, we gotta repair this!" Technitian: "Nope." Bridge: *_collapses_* Everyone: *_suprised Pikachu face_*

Horrific to think about, but thanks for bringing attention to things like this.