The Silver Bridge disaster

I was 13 years old when this bridge fell. My parents had to go out of town for a few days and left my younger sister and I with some close friends who lived in the same neighborhood. The man of the house was a truck driver and a good man. He had a delivery that this bridge was on his route. He ask me if I wanted to ride along with him and I was excited to ride in his big truck. The lady called my mother long distance to ask permission, but due to scheduling of my parents' return home, my mom said no. The truck driver would not be back before my parents arrived home. His truck was on the bridge when it fell and he lost his life. I was still at the house when his wife got the phone call and clearly remember her face going stone cold as she dropped the phone and fainted to the floor. That was a seriously troubled time for his family, especially that close to Christmas!!!

Walter Carpenter was my high school Biology teacher. Later, I considered him a good friend. Whenever anyone greeted him and asked how he was doing, his reply was always: "Better Than I Deserve". As a resident of St. Marys for much of my life, I will always remember the original Hi Carpenter Bridge. And the new bridge which replaced the one which was closed, was opened to traffic the same week as I reported for active duty in the US Marine Corps, 1977. Mr. Walter Carpenter was an authority on local history and a good man. He is missed by family and friends.

As a child I remember crossing the Silver Bridge several times to visit relatives in Ohio. My Dad would always say" ok everyone hold your breath and pray in silence that we make it this time". My Dad never did trust the bridge.

It’s so nice to see and hear my Uncle Walters voice again.
He’s passed on now and was a wealth of historical and natural information he’s much missed.

I am a Mechanical Engineer (BSME, MSME) with 40 years of experience and this is an excellent and interesting documentary! It's very sad to hear of this collapse and condolences to the families losing loved ones. At the same time, it is good that standards were established and implemented for inspection of bridges.

My parents crossed the Silver Bridge just 1 day before it collapsed. I remember them saying that the swaying of the bridge just didn’t seem right and it really scared them. My dad stated that he would never cross that bridge again. Well, he was right on that one. I wonder if the ramps are still standing on either sides. I guess I need to make a trip to find out. Great video.

I need more content like this. This reminds me so much of old Discovery Channel and History Channel before it became all reality shows.

My Uncle was the head engineer in charge of putting the wreckage back together to find the cause of the bridge failure. I crossed that bridge many times and only a few days before it went down. It never crossed my mind that the bridge was dangerous.

This is a really great documentary. I like the no nonsense approach and the fact it isn't dumbed down but is still presented in a way that you don't have to be a structural engineer to understand what's going on. No propaganda, no bells and whistles, no unnecessary "pop art" graphics, just the story. This is a lost art.

This was so informative, I learned a lot. I always wondered how they built these suspension bridges without pulling one of the main supports down horizontally before they could couple it with the other side.

This is one of the reasons that certain load-bearing elements of railroad locomotives are never painted. That paint will hide otherwise visible cracks in the metal.

I grew up right next to the foreriver bridge in Quincy/Weymouth, Mass, it spanned the river between Weymouth and Quincy, as a kid we used it as our own swimming and jumping place, it was a draw bridge and you could feel slight movement from trucks and buses going by, but I always felt secure, we take for granted it'll be safe, thank you for a great doc on this bridge collapse, we all can relate to bridges, there such a big part of our world. 🙏

My grandfather was the first person to call the police about the bridge falling. As he lived right beside the bridge and watched it fall. The police didn't believe him until others called in. His name is Roy Sayre.

Wow that woman who had the wherewithal to back up on the bridge came so close. I couldn’t imagine seeing a bridge fall out of the sky inches from me and where I had just been. Crazy.

I was in the 9th grade and living in Parkersburg, West Virginia when the Silver Bridge collapsed. My Social Studies teacher brother was at a traffic light waiting to drive onto the bridge when it fell. One of my brother’s friends was a scuba diver and had to help bring up the bodies. This is a very good documentary of the incident. If you are a believer in the supernatural check out The Mothman Prophecies.

Thank you for posting this, it's a pleasure to watch such a well made video. Deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the victims.

The American Bridge Company built the Hercilio Luz Bridge in Florianópolis, Brazil in 1926. It has a similar design of the Silver Bridge and was reopened last year after it was revitalized. I monitored some part of the progress as Civil Engineering student and it was fantastic.

I live about 30 miles from the this bridge. I remember hearing stories from the dive teams that went down to recover bodies and such. Many were getting stuck in the muddy muck on the bottom. One particular diver described seeing a catfish big enough to swallow a grown man just swimming back and forth in front of him. He stayed he poked at it with a hooked pole he was using and it just swam off.

Aaah, what a pleasure - to watch a video without any stupid unnecessary background music trying to make it appear cool and modern but really only competing with the speaker. And the speaker in this one is so good as well, so easy to understand. Thank you very much film editor

My grandfather worked for the DOTD of Louisiana as a bridge inspector for 30 years. No bridge he ever inspected fell, though some did have issues. It’s a critical job that most treat as an inconvenience.

Living in Pittsburgh, I've walked over the bridges before and they honestly feel more stable than most other bridges I've been on. Didn't realize they were so old but they'll definitely be able to last for a while longer

It's amazing how close to being safe this bridge was. The designer was right about the strength of the materials and the design. But because of the combination of water pooling, corrosion, and work hardened members the crack was created. If any of those three things had not been, it would have been fine. This goes to show that using a higher factor of safety may be overkill for the structure overall, but it comes in handy when you get these unlucky combinations of problems that are hard to predict and greatly weaken a single spot.

This caused my lifelong fear of bridges. Hard thing to overcome when you’re an over the road truck driver.

Roberto Clemente Bridge is an architectural marvel. It's iconic view from the right field grandstands of PNC Park is what makes it a permanent landmark. Also, the reason they call us the city of bridges isn't because of the amount of bridges in the region, but because of how we construct them.

LOVED LOVED LOVED this production. the script and all the speaking roles were so novel. it avoided the "slick" quality that so many docs have today. it had a simplicity that modern docs eschew. the amateur, or should i say non professional speakers gave a wonderful feeling of unpretentious reality.
the professional narrator spoke with clarity and authority and never upstaged the subject. she was great.
very impressive.
thank you.

always find it amazing how, in any engineering disaster, the experts reconstruct as much as possible to find the fault. Very similar to plane crashes, no matter how large or small the component, every piece is used to tell the tale of disaster.

I remember driving from Columbus, Ohio to Huntington AV a week or so after the Silver Bridge fell, and finding a tow or three mile backup at the Huntington Bridge, about forty miles from the Silver Bridge. Turned out everyone was waiting until the car ahead had gotten more than halfway over before accelerating so that there were only two or three cars on the bridge at a time. we were terrified.

Excellent narration, great presentation. Thank you.
The suspension towers of the Silver Bridge seem remarkably fragile compared to the lengths of the spans they're supporting.

what a very informative and tragic discussion about this bridge failure. It seems that we always have to learn from accidents in order to make things better. I wish it were possible that we would engineer in safety protocols for things before they are built. I'm amazed at how the investigators were able to piece together the broken bridge and find the culprits responsible for the failure. Tremendous work in doing this without very much technology.It is a testament to people who died that every bridge now is inspected on a regular basis and they are maintained.

I was 11 when the Silver Bridge collapsed and lived in the Charleston area. I wish my Dad was around to watch this video. He would have found it very interesting (as do I). Thanks!

I'm not a naturally mechanically inclined person, but I found this documentary and its explanations and graphics easy to understand and interesting. Thanks for the upload.

did anyone catch this event in a movie called, "Moth Man"...? My grandmother lived on the Ohio side, in a house located on the hill facing the bridge at the time it fell. She told me her experience of the bridge falling. She was a house wife at the time, my grand father drove a greyhound bus to Chicago, and back everyday. She told me that she didn't see it break apart, but had a birds eye view of the horrific aftermath. She said she could not hold back tears then, and when she had told me about it in 1975. She had explained to me what is said here, that the people, the area, was so proud to have such a grad size bridge. How important it made them feel to what was happening in the US back then.

My father crossed the bridge several times the day it fell. As a very young child I cried every time we crossed the bridge because I just felt it was going to fall, it swayed.

Sad , haunting event, and I'm sure still very much alive in this community. I'd never heard of this bridge failure before, but my thanks to the crew that produced and edited and posted this video - respectful, the technical content is appropriate and based, input from locals adds to the story w/o being overwrought. Appreciated, thanks.

I was 9 years old when this collapse happened..My Mother cried and my Dad shook his head.. They knew several people that died on that bridge.. I'll never forget that day..

I was 17 years old when the bridge fell. I was attending the old Barboursville High School as a senior. This happening just before the Christmas season left a saddened populace. This was the first really big event that made me realize that anything could and would happen with no regard for the people involved. I grew up when this happened and felt less than safe as a person on earth. This event, the assassination of John Kennedy, and the Marshall plane crash that destroyed the Marshall football team, cheerleaders, and loyal fans certainly made me realize that no one is ever safe, and fate, or whatever you want to call the randomization of events, was ever present and leering at all of us.

I have looked at that spot hundreds of times in my life and thought about it extensively since I lived in the area. Also, my grandfather was one of the divers who tried to retrieve the bodies from the Ohio river. Bad deal.

I remember when that happened. Dad was sent down there to help recover those poor souls that died. He was a volunteer fire fighter on Mt. Carmel's North Union Twnph Fire Dept (lifesquadman)

Great description of how a suspension bridge was supposed to work. This was a great documentary.

My family lived in west virginia during that time and my uncle was on the bridge at the moment of collapse and perished. But my uncle was an alki and this man of the house was an emotional wreck who treated my aunt horribly. He was on his way to see one of his many ladies in his black book when he died. So even though this was a tragedy something good came out of it.

Why is this channel not monotized?? It's fantastic! This narrator is the best female narrator I've even had the pleasure to enjoy! (Covering such educational, dark subjects)

Great documentary! This is the gold standard for how to make a proper documentary. And thanks for no dramatic music! 👍🏻💕

Man.. when I first saw the design of this bridge I thought, this is a terrible design..
But after learning more about the bridge, I started to think that this was a terrific design, just had a couple fatal flaws that went unnoticed..
It really makes you have immense respect for the designs that do work and do last.

I live near Pittsburgh and have gone over each of the 3 bridges many times. This was so interesting. I look forward to seeing more of your videos.

What a great team! From the fella that was there back when the bridge opened to the contemporary engineer of today with the head of the museum to tie the report together and, of course, not forgetting our brave survivor lady (I liked her) to the narrator who was clear and concise. I think those "sister bridges" are outstanding and I'm very interested to see them today. Thank you very much for a fine show. \m/

Great video. Especially appreciated Jack Fowler's commentary. Very clear, informed, and honest. E.g., describing how the sister bridge didn't need to be shut down, given the difference in usage, but emotions were so high after the silver bridge disaster it was hopeless trying to convince them.

Thanks for this well produced documentary! The lady saved her life by backing up! The tensile strength of the "shiny metal" was below standard and the rust accumulates and the failure occurs. Condolences to the families of those killed in that tragedy.

The Open University! Such great content and so well presented. I often stay up late to watch OU programmes on BBC.

The older sister of this bridge, and one of these three already built in the world, (Hercílio Luz) in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, which is still standing, was recently restored. Cars went back on December 30, 2019, after 28 years banned due to cracking in one of the four eyebars support. Hercilio Luz may not have collapsed because it had four supporting eyebars, unlike Silver Brigde which had only two.

This is extremely fascinating. You're earned a subscription. I look forward to viewing more of your content.

Living on the Ohio River I have seen several similar bridges between Pittsburgh and Louisville and most were built within a few yrs of each other in the 1920s. The one in Madison Indiana was very similar to the one at Point Pleasant . It was replaced about 8 yrs ago I believe

I was in high school, living less than 60 miles away when this tragedy struck. It alarmed many folks for many years afterwards.

Thank you for this interesting documentary; it gives me a new respect for engineers and those involved in solving structural problems. I sincerely hope that the remarkable investigation into the failure of the bridge, and the integrity of the response, are treated in this manner in 2022. It was so beautiful really.

Really well done documentary. Well paced, well explained and competently reported. Fact filled but not boring which made for engaging content.

There are actually a number of these same amazing i-beam supported suspension bridges in Pittsburgh. Another one which similar in design to the Three Sisters (albeit with a much narrower pedestrian walkway) is the 10th Street Bridge spanning the Monongahela river on the southern side of downtown. Beautiful bridge.

What an absolute joy to see a documentary of such high calibre!
Facts, expert analysis and participants recalling their personal experiences of the actual incident all make this a delight to watch.
The viewer learns rather than be entertained by the unfolding examination of relevant information.

Thank you. I grew up just up river from the Silver Bridge and recall its failure when it happened. This topic is certainly timely given the raging debate about infrastructure in this country.
It’s time to recall the lessons tragically learned from this piece of history. I pray that our leaders & law makers revisit this incident during their debates and do what’s right for us all.

My dad was a fire fighter on the South Charleston fire dept. in the 60's. He and two other off-duty fire fighters took the dept. boat up there the next day to help search for bodies. Always been fascinated with the bridge.

Great job Francesca! So surprisingly refreshing to have a nicely modulated British accent tell us a quintessentially American story.

I’ve always been fascinated by the video of the bridge waving around. I remember as a kid not being able to understand how that could happen.

I drove my mama across that bridge one day and remarked, "Mom, some day this old bridge will fall" as we experienced a trembling and scary swinging of it from side to side as we crossed. Mama replied, "No. They built this bridge too well." I crossed that bridge hundreds of times and was terrified each time. There was a traffic light on the WV side which caused the bridge to be loaded with cars and trucks for extended periods. I remember seeing the newspaper accounts after the fall with pictures of Christmas packages floating in the water. How haunting and sad that was.

A factor of 1.5 is never enough for a bridge, in my opinion. It is enough if the loads are calculated accurately, if the loads are never increased, and if there are no design errors or defects in materials and workmanship, and no deterioration of the structure. But the factor of safety is what protects you against all those things.

I remember this. I was a 10 y/o kid living in West Virginia when the news bulletin interrupted whatever we were watching. It was surreal to watch especially knowing most people who were on the bridge were out Christmas shopping.

I'm always impressed how professional Investigators in tragedies like this can sift thro the twisted chaos and physical aftermath and can quite literally pinpoint the cause(s). Lockerbie and the King's Cross Underground also spring to mind as examples of dogged forensics.

I grew up on a river that had an old bridge built in the 20's that was a lot like this bridge, it just partly collapsed last year. Where it collapsed, there was only I-beams propping it up, the other parts had huge pillars holding them up.

As a 20 something adult I’m beyond glad we live in an age where building technique have had thousands of years of practice, and newer ones have had a few decades. It sucks those people passed but hopefully we learned and do better

This is the way to do a documentary: leave the viewer smarter after watching. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have crossed the replacement bridge hundreds traveling from Ohio to WV for work.
As soon as I learned of this disaster I looked for where the old bridge had been.
To the untrained eye most people would never know what happened that night.

Truly, what a tragedy. I’ve regularly had nightmares about falling from a bridge as a kid to now. Due to those nightmares I have a fear of driving on bridges too. I’m probably going to have another nightmare today after watching this. It was interesting to see how bridges are designed though. A very educational documentary.

I live in Gallipolis Ohio. My parents had just gotten off of it when it fell. I wouldn’t exist!! Thank you for making this❤️

Thank you for producing such an interesting and informative documentry.

I recall in Michigan they made overpasses with what was known as rusting metal technology, that particular steel was supposed to rust to a certain degree and that rust would form a protective coating. Problem was it was snake oil, the rust never stoped until it completely rusted through.

Just superb. I was in grade school in West Virginia when the Silver Bridge fell and subsequently became an engineer, but I never informed myself about the final causality. Well done.

I remember when that bridge fell. I lived in Columbus Ohio and that's the bridge we had to cross on our way to North Carolina. I was 18 at that time. My next door neighbor brother was right at the bridge when it collapsed. Luckily he was able to stop his car before he went over.. Several people lost their lives. Was a sad day. I'm 74 now and always scared to drive over bridges.

I lived in NE Ohio with my parents, and we had relatives in WVA. We had to cross there shortly after the collapse, and I remember they were using a barge to ferry the cars across the river. I guess it was a major highway and crossing point back then. I was 10yo and the whole situation was terrifying! My uncle made fun of me for being scared and assured me the barge was made of cork and that even a "Battleship couldn't sink it!"

This is what happens when you make a suspension structure too rigid. The eyebar system enforced a side to side rigidity that concentrated stresses. The failure could have just as easily come from the small bolts that held the eyebar pin endcaps on. There were multiple design flaws in such a system, and why cable bridges are generally superior.

I really miss the comfort that the OU brought to us insomniacs. So glad it now exists online! :)

15:10 Alloy steel has essentially the same elastic modulus (a measure of material stiffness) regardless of whether it's mild steel or high strength steel. The Silver Bridge used less steel because the steel was stronger, however this had the side effect of more deflection under load than a similar bridge built with more massive components. Hence the increased motion of the bridge felt by motorists compared to other suspension bridges.

Very interesting and informative. I have never liked going over bridges, but do like to look at a well designed, well built bridge. Always act on a hunch to move in any direction. Eight out of ten times, it's the right move. RIP to the folks that didn't make it. Blessed be.

I remember one man said it hit home to him when he realized the girl who normally sat next to him in class wasn't there. She and her mother had died in the Silver Bridge disaster.

this was a very good educational video. we still have politicians skip or ignore bridge safety(like the 35W bridge in minneapolis). as well as buildings like the recent florida condominium building collapse. its a problem with human beings behavior more than the structure themselves.

The part of the eyebar that broke off is on display at the NIST museum in Gaithersburg Maryland. At the time, NIST analyzed the bar and were able to determine that it was the cause of the accident. I'm surprised they didn't show pictures of it here.

"the silver bridge disaster's has a lasting legacy in Bridge safety" Which is why in 2019, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association found more than 47,000 bridges in the U.S. are in poor condition and in need of urgent repairs, but as of 2020 the US Congress has giving zero dollars to repair any of them....

Very well done documentary. I had never heard of this disaster before now. I hope that the loss of life that day has not been in vain due to the increased inspections.

I remember watching this tragedy on the Today Show, they showed them bringing up cars that were crushed and twisted and I will never forget seeing a hand with fingers splayed out sticking out of one the twisted crushed cars. That image haunted me for years. I’ve never forgotten it.

Very interesting. I've worked a lot on cars and most bolts on them are high strength steel, and some aren't, And I'm always shocked to see how fast the higher steel grades rust. Apparently they molecular structure, due to increased carbon is more brittle and more sensitive to corrosion. And bicycles, yes I am from the Netherlands, I've seen parts fail due to corrosion, of which most recently a crown tube from a front suspension fork, causing a concussion and tooth damage on a colleague of mine. He always rode this mountainbike with no front fender, and the water, which is often salt here in the winter to prevent icy roads, was splattering way up this tube and that caused it to rust out from the inside out.

My grandfather was born on the south end of the bridge twenty years before it was built in south point WVA Mason County We watched the news reports of the collapse in horror in his living room in Munroe Falls Ohio on WEWS TV Cleveland He still had family and friends down there but thankfully didn’t know anyone who died that day I still remember seeing the wreckage of the bridge when I drove down there with him to see the old homestead in the 70s

Love this video and coming to see it. Being from the town and hearing all the stories. 54 years ago but still very fresh in the memories.

My uncle drove for Hennis Freight Lines out of Winston-Salem, NC. He was about to cross the bridge, but he stopped just before the bridge to eat. )I've read where a fellow Hennis driver did perish when he went down into the Ohio.) He told us the story shortly after the tragedy. He said something about 40 trucks and cars being on the bridge, with one guy trying to back off when he heard it start popping and cracking. Though, 53 years ago, I was 7 years old, yet my memory of my uncle's account is vivid.

New to your channel...This is Excellent!!! Wish your whole channel was like this...Love hearing about disasters of the past...Rip to all who perished...History Learned prevents Hopefully a REPEAT!!!🌻🌼🌸🌺🌻🌼🌸🌺🌻🌼🌸🌺❤️🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️❤️🧡💙💚💜🤎💙💚💜

I remember when I was a lot younger my grandfather talking about the Silver Bridge. He hauled cars a crossed it 100+ times from Michigan to Charleston And I remember him talking about him crossing the bridge the day before it collapsed. He said he heard a very loud pop and the bridge shook in a way it never did before.

Who would think! I crossed that bridge many times before it fell in 1967. After it fell, we would take the ferry across the river.
It was a terrible time knowing all those unsuspecting people fell to their death that day. God bless them all.

Terrible shame this happened. It makes the Brooklyn Bridge even more remarkable. The loss of lives is heartbreaking.

Golden Gate also sways around, and it goes up and down too.
Walking across the Golden Gate in heavy fog and wind and feeling the bridge moving is exhilarating.

Thank you for sharing a painful story. In Toronto I've watched Condominium towers built and the support columns have shrunk significantly, at least by a factor of 2, relying on higher strength materials. I wonder if we have a failure in our future somewhere. RIP the lost souls of the silver bridge.

The McClean truck at 12:05 was driven by a friend of my fathers. He was about 15 minutes behind him. Dad had to stop and was delayed and was trying to catch back up to his buddy when he drove up on this disaster. If he had not had the minor issue he had there would have been 2 McClean trucks in that mess!

The collapse happed close to Christmas, and the loss of 40+ lives caused Christmas 1967 to be cancelled in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.
John Keel wrote a book called “The Mothman Prophecies” which was made into a Richard Gere movie of the same title. The Silver Bridge collapse was included.

That steel they used was so brittle, it is unbelievable! Makes you wonder. It looks like they did exactly the same that they did with the rivets of the Titanic in the day: they added (sort of coarsely milled) SLAG in the iron (and yes those rivets furthermore were made from a mixture of iron and steel, whilst for the bow section of the Titanic they used even weaker rivets that only contained soft iron) which was one of the decisive factors with the sinking of that ship*. That slag that was put into those rivets (and in high levels) was a result of both material shortages and cost cutting, which resulted in the wharf obtaining those rivets from less reputable foundries that likely put in to to dozens of percents of slag to save on steel and iron. And worst of all was that by times rather big chunks of slag made it into the final product without further ado, which made them utterly unreliable and prone to failing! Now when we take a look at the place of the break in the bridge part(s), we see a very comparable, rough surface. It looked much more like the surface of any randomly chosen piece of hard rock on a mountain side, it out showing a very irregular surface (with lots of 'relief') of which the structure looks sand-like. And THAT is precisely what the most brittle iron by imaginable looks like. Note, this is NOT something that looks like steel AT ALL, it is IRON, and its appearance has all the hallmarks of CAST IRON - which is KNOWN for being the most brittle form of the type of metal that can be made, will BREAK when overstressed, lacks ANY flexibility, and contains an up to ten times higher percentage of added carbon than any other form of iron or steel. It is so hard it practicality will not rust. It is not impact resistant and has a tendency to break. Among its limited number of applications are ship boulders (present on the ship to make it possible to use mooring ropes, that also are used to stop the ship moving when required, and to keep it in position in waterlocks: of course the ropes won't harm the cast iron: they don't smash into it). ANYWAY, these bridge parts look EXACTLY like that - and as I explained, that means that no-one of the specifications of those parts met those that were required. Now if course casting can be done in many ways, it does not NEED to involve a high level of added carbon (or much worse still, added slag, which will not integrate structurally in the steel at all, is incomparably more course and every price of it once in can be seen as a hollow up spot, as the slag has nor adds ANY strength to the steel). And even when (initially) cast, the steel can still be rolled after, which (in combination with a tiny little bit of carbon instead of a whole lot) will give it the tremendous strength, flexibility, structural integrity, yes reliability of STEEL, and in combination with sight reheating will relieve it of (its) internal stress - that treatment allows the molecules the material consists of to rearrange into neatly organised, regular, grid-like structures. Only when ROLLED iron will actually become steel that has such highly valuable characteristics, tremendously strong, maximally consistent (without ANY voids even when checked on nano-scale), flexible AND impact resistant, and ALSO pretty much rust proof - especially in internally ~ in other words, high quality all around. What we see was used as parts to hang this bridge deck from, that was precisely the opposite. I have just described what it looks like she what it occurs to be, and what I would be enticed to call this, resuming, is nothing short of an ABOMINATION. It must have been a local foundry that not only lacked any ACTUAL know-how and professionalism, but that on top of that was allowed to go completely unchecked, with all the rest of the folk working on the project thinking these were quality parts with specific characteristics purely on their say-so (something that rings through even to this very day, one can notice when paying attention to the - inadequate - words STILL used to describe these parts AND actual critical and independent thoughts on the matter or any ADEQUATE description thereof STILL being missing even today!) so all of that reeks of politics, hidden interests and possibly budgets that were plundered.
*Another decisive shortcoming had to do with the actual design of the ship that were severely flawed, untested, and only based on baseless assumptions: the ship was thought to have been made 'unsinkable' be cause it contained a whole series of supposedly watertight compartments. Those compartments however were not actually shaped like separate, independent, fully enclosed, water- and pressureproof spaces big enough to allow the ship to stay afloat even in a worst case scenario when SOME of those compartments would be breached, no, they merely consisted of partitions that only reached to a certain height and were open on the top. When the ship struck an iceberg the water that gushed in simply flowed over those barriers, quickly filling compartment after compartment. Also the Titanic was meant to sport about 60 life boats but when it left port to start its maiden voyage, only twenty had been put in their place. And although in each life boat there was room for about 60 people, there were only twenty-odd present in the first one that launched...

Great information and a lot more accurate than the Richard Gere movie where the Silver Bridge takes many minutes to collapse and also concluded with “No one knows why the Silver Bridge collapsed” (or some words to that affect). I believe the movie is called “The Mothman Prophecies”.

I wonder whats the clearance between the pin and the hole, and what type of surface roughness is required for the joint, and if the structure is peened! Great video, thanks.