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Today is the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge, a mile-long drawbridge that spans the James River between Jordan's Point and Hopewell, Virginia. On February 24, 1977, an ocean-going tanker named the S.S. Marine Floridian headed downriver from Richmond. As the 5700-ton, 523-ft. long vessel rounded a bend in the river and approached the bridge, the steering gear malfunctioned, causing the pilot to lose control of the ship. While motorists waited in their cars along the bridge's fixed span, the bridge tender raised the structure's vertical span and awaited the passage of the ship. The pilot of the S.S. Marine Floridian tried to steer his vessel towards the opening, but continued along a crash course. Fortunately, the motorists waiting on the bridge's southbound span were able to exit their cars and run to safety before the ocean-going tanker rammed the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge.
Built in 1966, the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge was designed by Hardesty & Hanover L.L.P., a New York-based engineering services firm whose founder, John Alexander Low Waddell, designed America's first vertical-lift bridge. An RPI graduate, Waddell literally wrote the book - The Design of Ordinary Iron Highway Bridges - on modern bridge-building. Years later, his successors at Hardesty & Hanover proved their founder's claim that "the science of bridge design lies mainly in detailing". When the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its report on January 1, 1978, the agency's most important recommendation was the relocation of the bridge tender's station to a fixed portion of the structure which did not move with the lift span.
A rebuilt Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge was reopened to traffic in the fall of 1978. Later, the Commonwealth of Virginia won a $9.7-million lawsuit against the shipping company that operated the ill-fated S.S. Marine Floridian.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Marine_Floridian
http://www.hardesty-hanover.com/TimeLine/1887-1938.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Harrison_Memorial_Bridge
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