How The 8th Wonder Of The World Failed Due To An Engineering Oversight |Massive Engineering Mistakes

The Kinzua bridge in Pennsylvania, USA, was once considered the tallest rail bridge in the world. However, a small but catastrophic mistake made the famous bridge fall from grace.

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[RaindropsBleeding]

Built in 3 months
Lasts for 100 years
0 casualties
Calculated risk or no, I'd call this a successful bridge

[Cypher]

Built in 90 days and then works over a hundred years... nobody injured or killed in its last day... I consider this a success 👍

[drinny]

How can this be considered an engineering failure? The bridge was taken down and rebuilt was used for over 100years. A tornado in an area that doesn’t get tornados blew it down. Maybe it couldn’t handle a 100 mph winds but it did what it was designed to do for well over a century.

[bullettube]

I can imagine the engineers discussing possible causes of failure 100 years ago and have no doubt that since Pennsylvania had never experienced a 100 mph tornado or even winds of that speed in the state that this scenario was never considered. Using cast iron collars was therefore not a mistake that warrants such hype as expressed in this video.

[markwalters]

I grew up 30 miles away from there and walked across that span 33 years ago. This bridge was constructed in less time than it would take your average local road crew to patch a pothole. It carried vital supplies of coal and lumber across rugged wilderness terrain for 77 years and tourists for a further 15 years. I'm sorry that an engineer in 1893 failed to predict a direct hit from a tornado in northwestern Pennsylvania 110 years later. The RMS Titanic, also considered a modern wonder of the world, lasted fewer than five full days in service.

[RandomVideosEverytime]

the bridge stood for 100 years. i think thats not a disaster. Thats simply depreciation.

[MrFunkia]

I was a mechanical engineer, and I have to say that this bridge was a huge success to have stood for over 100 years. I salute the engineers that designed and built it!

[DionDriven]

This was built in 90 days by 120 man and it lasted 100 years 'till a tornado going over 100 miles an hour destroyed it, with zero victims! This was not a failure! This structure was a great success when you take into account the Technology this man had available at that time!...A standing ovation to those great pioneers!!! 👌👍🙏👏🙌

[MrJeffcoley]

Fail? It lasted OVER 100 YEARS and only “failed” after a TORNADO hit it?

Hardly a failure. By any reasonable standard a smashing success.

[srpacific]

I’m really glad a Neuroscientist is telling me about an iron girder bridge

[eddixon]

So a routine inspection after a hundred years discovered that high winds could be dangerous to the bridge, so they stopped trains from crossing it. If anything this bridge represents a success, in both engineering and taking precautionary measures.

[snowboardguy]

No matter what evidence of failure they have for it falling, absolutely no project like that could be accomplished that quickly and last that long in today's world. I say this bridge was a huge win

[o.k]

I don’t like how this video kinda blames the original engineer because he didn’t think 100 years in the future and the bridge only lasted 100 years and not more. Give the dude some credit, it stood for 100 years, not 20.

[paulrogers]

I’d say the original engineers did it right. This seems like Lack of maintenance By future generations. All they had to do was replace those sleeves periodically.

[Phred]

Used for 100 years. Built in 3 months. Sounds like a success to me.

[paxtonacer]

I like how one of the experts they brought on to talk about a historical/engineering related topic was a neuroscientist .

[lifesabitch]

So happy to see I'm not the only one who thinks this wasn't a failure at all, absolute ridiculous video

[MondoBeno]

This is NOT an engineering failure. The bridge was built on time, with few fatalities, and lasted a century. Pennsylvania is not a tornado zone, so there was no reason to consider the effect of a tornado on the structure.

[oscarmadison]

120 men built it in 90 days and it stood for 110 years until a tornado hit it. Hat's off to the real men of yester-year.

[vagcentral]

Okay but let's just say they did proper anchor points prior. 100mph winds would still do significant damage. Because it's not just wind it's wind carrying trees and debris that would puncture/break many parts of that bridge. It would likely need to be closed/completely re engineered regardless.