Ironworker's Memorial Second Narrows Crossing 1

[davidbeach]

I was in Vancouver BC recently, crossing back and forth between Vancouver and North Vancouver on the 2nd Narrows Bridge. I heard that it got the Ironworker's Memorial name because of a collapse that killed several ironworkers. Having not previously heard of a bridge collapse in Vancouver, I Googled they name and found some very brief descriptions; basically that a math error caused a temporary support to be inadequate.

Is there more to the story than just a one or two sentence description? I know that many bridge catastrophes could be summarized in one or two sentences, but that there are also many good articles on various bridge failures. Does anybody know the rest of the story on this bridge, or where a good description can be found?

 

[Qshake]

I've not heard of this....and am relatively well informed or so I thought!

I'm going to search my links....

Regards,
Qshake

Eng-Tips Forums:Real Solutions for Real Problems Really Quick.

 

[Qshake]

Ironworkers Memorial Bridge

The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, originally called the Second Narrows Bridge, is the second bridge constructed at the Second Narrows of Burrard Inlet. It connects Vancouver to the North Shore of the Burrard Inlet, which includes North Vancouver and West Vancouver. It was constructed along side the original Second Narrows Bridge, which is now exclusively a rail bridge. The bridge is a steel cantelever truss bridge. The design was by Swan Wooster Engineering Co. Ltd. Construction began in November of 1957. The bridge was officially opened on August 25, 1960. It cost approximately $15 million to build. The bridge is 1292m long with the centre span being 335m.
In Memoriam
The bridge was renamed the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing in 1994 to honour the 27 workers that lost their lives during its construction. On June 17, 1958, several spans of the new bridge collapsed after an overloaded support beam broke. 50 workers plunged 30 metres into the water; 18 of them were drowned by their heavy tool belts.
External link

http://www.nsnews.com/issues00/w062600/06210001.html

A Survivor's Account: Bridge Disaster Recalled
List of bridges Category:Bridges in Canada Category:Bridges completed in 1960
More...

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Ironworkers Memorial Bridge

Hello, I added a correction to the naming of the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrow Crossing, added history of the accident, created a link to a survivor's account and added dates. Cheers. Skippingrock 14:09, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC) Thanks Denelson83 for the copy edit. I don't know where all those errors came from. Must have been late. Thanks again. Skippingrock

Regards,
Qshake

Eng-Tips Forums:Real Solutions for Real Problems Really Quick.

 

[davidbeach]

Qshake, sorry to take so long to get back to this. I had found that article. What I was hoping for was something like would be a chapter in a Henry Petroski book. What were the calculation errors? What kinds of mistakes lead to the calculation errors? Thanks for the effort though.