Talk:List of bridge disasters

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Should we not have a definition of what constitues a disaster ? Some of these sound like minor, albeit interesting, accidents. I would have assumed that it needed at least a fatality to qualify as a disaster? Any thoughts or suggestions ? Velela 19:35, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

What in the world differentiates regular disasters from catastrophic collapse!?! The Webbers Falls incident seemed larger than quite a few of the others listed in terms of injury/death... and in terms of how complete bridge destruction was. Sunshine Skyway was listed but not that one. I guess its Wikipedia and I should myself be making such changes, but I'd like to hear others discuss. I think if we are going to have separate categories, we at least some generic rules for why some make a stronger list. JeopardyTempest 08:36, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree, in reading this page it seems more like a list of notable bridge collapses than it does a list of disasters...several of the entries in the list have no injuries, much less deaths. In particular, although the Harp Road incident seems to be a nasty inconvenience, it hardly seems to be a full-fledged disaster. I'd support renaming the page or revisisng the list.--BlackAndy 22:56, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Contents 1 (Fictional) Bridge on the River Kwai was not a disaster/ accident 2 Merge list of collapses from Bridge 3 Duplication 4 Bridge on River Douro, Portugal 5 Proposed removal of Harrow and Wealdstone bridge 6 Damage 7 More recent I-80 bridge collapse 8 War Crime 9 Two lists

[edit] (Fictional) Bridge on the River Kwai was not a disaster/ accident

I've removed the entry for the 'Bridge on the River Kwai' as a Fictional Bridge Disaster. The bridge was destroyed by a wartime demolitions team, not by accident/ failure, in both the novel and the movie. The real Burma railway bridge was destroyed by Allied bombing, but then repaired.

• If the real bridge was destroyed by bombing, then why is the collaps of the Sterling Bridge in the 1200s listed? It wasn't an accident.Vlasktom 05:49, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

An accident can be a disaster, as can an intentional incident. A forest fire, for example, can be disastrous whether it be sparked by lightning or set intentionally. But maybe that isn't your question?--BlackAndy 22:56, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge list of collapses from Bridge

The current listing of collapses in Bridge greatly duplicates much text here. It would seem to make sense to have one list. Velela 19:06, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Duplication

Why is the info for some accidents/disasters duplicated (table and list)? Shouldn't they only be mentioned once? Andrew⁶⁴⁷ 04:44, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

That dates back to December 06 when a list of disasters from the Bridge article was moved here: they still need tidying up and rationalising. If you've time, feel free to jump right in! I'd suggest they're all moved to the table format, personally. -- Kvetner 07:30, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Cool. If I get the chance to, I'll do it. Andrew⁶⁴⁷ 15:57, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Since the table can be sorted by date, the list is completely redundant. If the article weren't in flux so much due to the Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse news, I'd fix it now. --Dawdler 00:56, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree - list is redundant. Also does anyone think the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge should be added? laurap414 21:40, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bridge on River Douro, Portugal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1202214.stm

Back in '01, bridge collapsed, killed 70.

[edit] Proposed removal of Harrow and Wealdstone bridge

I don't believe this entry should be here, as the bridge failure was a consequence, not a cause of the problem. It caused me to choose the entry because I was unaware of any UK bridge failure causing so many deaths, which was confirmed by the entry. Vicarage 02:00, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I for one would vote to keep. A lot of these failure aren't so much direct incidents (Sunshine Skyway in Tampa, Mobile Amtrak incident, and even the recent Oakland incident. I think it's a question worth asking: should disasters where the bridge was not directly at fault be listed. But for my two cents, keep, at least given the current article JeopardyTempest 10:26, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Damage

In the damage section, the description is not consistent. A couple of different phrases seem to me to mean exactly the same thing, and I believe the same description should be used for the same problem. The descriptions that seems the same to me are as follows: Bridge total damage, Bridge completely destroyed, Bridge totally destroyed, Total destruction, Bridge destroyed, Total collapse, Bridge total damage, Total collapse, and Total bridge failure. Seems to me one phrase should be used, and not the many as listed above. Leppi 06:16, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] More recent I-80 bridge collapse

Why is the more recent tanker fire and subsequent bridge collapse of I-80 in San Francisco not listed here?Bryanpeterson 21:24, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] War Crime

Added entry into the table about the famous historic bride on Neretva (cannoned into river during the yugoslav fall-apart war in 1993, now rebuilt). 91.83.19.241 (talk) 23:10, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Someone else reverted it. I assume that's because it wasn't a natural disaster, i.e it was done on purpose, and that's beyond the scope of the article. Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} 23:34, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

This is illogical. The Remagen bridge is also included in the list and that one collapsed due to WWII bombardment, so both should stay or be removed to be NPOV. Or what about the Margaret Bridge on Danube, in Budapest, Hungary? That one exploded on November 4th, 1944, with some 600 civilians on it (the nazi german troops undermined it in preparation to upcoming soviet army invasion but the detonators short-circuited prematurely, killing so many people). Isn't the death of 600 people a bridge disaster, regardless of war or peace? 82.131.210.162 (talk) 10:32, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

According to the writeup [1] that bridge was not directly destroyed by bombardment. However, I agree with you that it does not belong on the list, or else there should be a separate section for deliberate sabotage of bridges, although that could prove to be quite a long list. Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} 11:44, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Two lists

Do we need two lists? One called "Catastrophic collapses", which is in date order, and one called "Disasters in date order", assumed to be catastrophic. They seem to cover exactly the same thing. They should be merged. --BIL (talk) 22:33, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

I was wondering the same thing. With the advent of sortable tables, we should just have one main list. The rest can be merged into the main table. spryde | talk 11:27, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

And then redirect the one to the other. Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} 11:44, 10 April 2008 (UTC)