Bridges of Sighs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Golden Gate, San Francisco

The gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge, bright red against the green hills of Marin County, the blue waters and the white buildings of San Francisco, is apparently an attractive location for those wanting to end their lives. People from all over the U.S. and world have traveled to San Francisco just to jump from this bridge at the edge of a continent. About 5% survive the fall from 245 feet (75 meters), but many of those then drown or die of hypothermia; amazingly, a few people survive each year to be picked up by U.S. Coast Guard Station Golden Gate at the foot of the bridge.

Answer: Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Tampa

In a severe thunderstorm on the morning of May 9th, 1980, the freighter Summit Venture struck one of the supporting columns of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge as the ship tried to enter Tampa Bay. Over 1200 feet of the southbound lane of the bridge plunged 150 feet into the water, causing 35 deaths among the passengers in one Greyhound bus, six cars and a truck. Amazingly, one man, Mr. Wesley MacIntire, survived when his pickup truck first hit the ship before falling into the bay. Before the remains of the bridge were finally removed, he drove to the opening and dropped 35 carnations into the waters below as a memorial to those lost on the day he survived.

Answer: SF-Oakland Bay Bridge

The 6.9 magnitude earthquake caused the eastern portion of the bridge, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, to move 7 inches to the east, causing bolts to shear and drop a 50- by 76-foot section of the upper deck onto the lower deck. The earthquake happened October 17th and the bridge was repaired and reopened on November 18th.

Answer: Tacoma Narrows

Begun in 1938, the first deck of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge visibly moved while under construction due to the winds funneling through the narrow waterway. Opened in July 1940, the bridge continued to oscillate so that it was closed in high winds. The bridge collapsed in November 1940 in 40 mph winds. Architects and physicists established that the motion that led to the collapse is known as aeroelastic flutter.

Answer: Amtrak

At 3 AM on September 22nd 1993, the Sunset Limited Amtrak train crossed the bridge at approximately 70 mph on its run from Los Angeles to Miami. Unknown to the train, an inexperienced tug boat pilot had hit the bridge in heavy fog, knocking the track out of alignment enough to cause the train to derail. Three locomotives and four passenger cars plunged into the river, killing 47.

Answer: China

Qijiang, China was the location of the 3-year-old bridge that collapsed on January 4th, 1999, killing at least 40 people. The main cause was determined to be corruption: from inferior steel to shoddy workmanship to poor maintenance. Lin Shiyuan, former deputy Communist Party chief of Qijiang County, was found guilty of accepting bribes from contractors and was executed.

Answer: Hyatt Regency

A striking feature of the 40-story Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, was a multi-story atrium that was spanned by walkway bridges suspended from the ceiling. Approximately 20 people were on the fourth-level walkway when it collapsed, crashing into the second-level walkway directly below that had approximately 40 people on it. Both walkways crashed into the floor below where a tea dance was being held.

Answer: Stirling Bridge

In September 1297, invading English forces crowded onto the narrow wooden Stirling Bridge over the River Forth. The weight of the troops caused the bridge to collapse, cutting off easy access and greatly contributing to the Scots victory. A stone bridge was built in the vicinity in the 1400s and remains in use today.

Answer: Break step

The vibrations caused by troops marching in step across the bridge caused a bolt to snap due to mechanical resonance. Luckily, only 20 were injured and no one was killed in the collapse. "Break step" causes troops to walk out of step, reducing the chance of mechanical resonance and is now routinely given when formations approach a bridge. "Route step" is similar, in that troops don't have to march in step, but that order is given on long marches to allow the troops to relax a bit and talk among themselves.

Answer: Bridge on the River Kwai

The Mae Klong was renamed the Kwai Yai River in 1960. The 1957 movie "Bridge on the River Kwai" is a fictionalized account of the building of a bridge in the Kanchanaburi area by prisoners of war in WW2. The actual bridge stood for over two years before being destroyed by allied air strikes.