Rider Bridge Failure, New York & Erie Railroad 1850
Great article from http://www.structuremag.org

https://www.structuremag.org/?p=14533

I believe the CNJ double roller lift bridge on page 401 (page 2 of this thread) was replaced in 1926 by the four lift spans of CNJ's Newark Bay Movable Bridge. These were two double track spans side by side for four main tracks, and there were two pair of these, one for each channel.

The bridge became famous on September 15, 1958 when CNJ train 3314 from NY&LB Bay Head to Jersey City ran through a stop signal and a derail, went under the counterweight (the bridge hadn't been lifted all the way) and went into Newark Bay with 48 fatalities.

The bridge was removed between 1980 and 2012 after NJT and Conrail no longer used the bridge.

Phil Mulligan

Here's a video about that train wreck in 1958.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq7BEl61IyA

https://www.nj.com/jerseyjournal150/201 ... bankr.html

A cantilever bridge that didn't work out too well.

Ashtabula Bridge Failure

https://www.structuremag.org/?p=16567

https://bridgehunter.com/oh/ashtabula/bh46889

Nice vintage railroad bridge images from Monovisions magazine


https://monovisions.com/vintage-the-for ... ion-1890s/

https://monovisions.com/vintage-railroa ... -trestles/

The middle photo above is actually a photo of a earthen embankment (fill) under construction. You can see the base of the fill being constructed with wagons. At some point the fill will become too high to make this practical, and then the fill material will come by rail, and dumped right through the trestle, burying it in the process. Very common in early railroad construction.

Bussey Bridge Disaster, aka Forest Hills Bridge, 1887

https://www.structuremag.org/?p=17909


https://www.jphs.org/transportation/bus ... count.html

Interesting study of Truss bridge patents.


https://www.sia-web.org/wordpress/wp-co ... ctPub1.pdf

I find it interesting that in quite a few of those designs the basic concepts of lines of force, symmetrical load transfer, and bending moments seem to be ignored in order to do something “different” let alone make the components easier to fabricate. Another one that caught my eye had the transfer of compression into a wooden beam primarily through a shallow notch which renders most of the cross section useless and would have a tendency to shear off. The ones with circular members are a hoot.

The Ghost Bridge of Amish Village in Sarasota, Florida.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... lorida.jpg

The Point Ellice Bridge Failure

https://www.structuremag.org/?p=18608

Tariffville Bridge Disaster

https://www.structuremag.org/?p=17148

Thanks to everyone! this is great.

Some vintage postcards.