# My bridge-driving nightmare come to life. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 23, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574 "2005-02-23T18:54:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/1 "2005-02-23T18:54:20Z")
I have reoccurring nightmares about bridges & overpasses where I end up driving off the end of an overpass under construction, or off of a bridge into water, or along a bridge that gets closer and closer to the water until it’s submerged. I saw this picture today, and I now have a major case of heebie jeebies: > **[Tunnel Vision](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tunnel-vision/)** > > Does a photograph show a bridge-tunnel system passing underwater between Sweden and Denmark? Thank you, Snopes, for letting me know about the existence of this thing, so I can avoid it. I think I will do so by NEVER DRIVING ANYWHERE IN VIRGINIA, EVER. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/2 "2005-02-23T19:04:53Z")
Huh, I thought this was going to be a little bit more like my fear, which is the fear of just missing the curve and driving right off the edge of a perfectly good bridge. I don’t know why, but I always get this irrational fear whether I’m driving or not. I have this image of the bridge curving, my car going straight and crashing onto the highway below. Thanks for sharing though, now your fear freaks me out too! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/3 "2005-02-23T20:17:35Z")
**Jaade** , your fear is more like mine. I’m scared I’m going to get in an accident on a bridge and go flying off the edge. I \*thought \* this was irrational and that bridges were surely better built than that…until I read about it happening in Charleston, SC. I don’t know if you’ve ever driven there, but a couple of the bridges are incredibly high and seem very rickety. Some guy in a Jeep Cherokee lost control in the rain one night and flew through the guardrail. I hate bridges. ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/4 "2005-02-23T20:23:11Z")
I get scared that when I drive under an overpass a semi is going to fall off the bridge and smush me flat. Aiee! This started happening after I saw a particularly gruesome crash on I-65, where a mobile home really was smashed flat as a pancake under a semi. Terrible. I don’t know why I get in the car anymore, ever. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/5 "2005-02-23T20:37:04Z")
> [@Jaade](#): > > Huh, I thought this was going to be a little bit more like my fear, which is the fear of just missing the curve and driving right off the edge of a perfectly good bridge. I have dreams like that _all the time_. I’m desperately afraid of bridges, but I can usually drive over them as long as I stay as far away from the railing as I can possibly get–and I’m sure other drivers hate me for being in the fast lane. 🙂 > [@C3](#): > > I thought this was irrational and that bridges were surely better built than that…until I read about it happening in Charleston, SC. My parents live just outside Charleston, and I’ve seen some of their new “safer” bridges under construction. All I can say is _yikes_. But, thanks to links provided by the Dope that I never should have clicked on, the [Millau Bridge](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4095037.stm) now features prominently in all my bridge nightmares. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/6 "2005-02-23T20:46:15Z")
As a kid, and into my adulthood, I’d have dreams that I was driving along a road that went into the water, and I couldn’t stop. I’d wake up with my heart racing. I’m not afraid of bridges, but I cross a very narrow, high bridge going to work in the dark of the morning. What bothers me are the oncoming trucks who can’t seem to stay on their side of the yellow line. It’s not like I can go anywhere!! Idiots!! I always have an escape plan in mind for when I’m plummeting in to the Potomac. :o ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/7 "2005-02-23T20:50:18Z")
I guess I’m the only person who’s now on [maps.google.com](http://maps.google.com) looking at how far this is from my house and wondering when I can go down there just to drive through that thing. It looks so cool - a bit scary - but really, really freaking cool. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/8 "2005-02-23T20:58:49Z")
Modern Marvels on the History channel did a show on it. > [@](#): > > Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel. > Aired on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 > > Named one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern age, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel connects Virginia proper with its easternmost landmass. Stretching 17 miles across the historic Chesapeake Bay, the structure represents a man-made boundary between the Bay and the Atlantic. The structure includes two 2-lane highways supported mostly by trestles, four man-made and one natural island, two truss bridges, and two revolutionary sunken tube tunnels. TVPG ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/9 "2005-02-23T21:07:33Z")
It’s pretty neat, yeah, but nothing to freak out about. Just a tunnel. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/10 "2005-02-23T21:09:46Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Modern Marvels on the History channel did a show on it. Actually, the CBBT and the MMBT are two different things- the MBBT crosses the James River; the CBBT crosses the Chesapeake Bay. One is 4.x miles long, the other is (I believe) 17. ---
**Author:** ![angelicate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@angelicate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/angelicate)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/11 "2005-02-23T21:18:20Z")
When we moved down here, we had to drive in on the [Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel](http://www.cbbt.com/). It’s a bridge that’s about 20 miles long with two 1-mile tunnels in the middle. I hated driving in that thing. If I want to go to Richmond, I have to take another tunnel and when my husband was working in the shipyard, we had to take another tunnel to get there. Needless to say, I’ve gotten over my uneasiness at driving through the tunnels. I like looking at them when I fly out of Norfolk, since when you’re dirving you don’t really get to see where they disappear and reappear, but you can see it from the air. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/12 "2005-02-23T21:33:40Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > I saw this picture today, and I now have a major case of heebie jeebies: > > [http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/bridgetunnel.asp](http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/bridgetunnel.asp) The [link](http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I664_VA_MMMBT.html) provided about this structure has the following passage: > [@](#): > > The current shipping channel above the deepest part of the tunnel, has 800 feet of horizontal width and 45 feet of vertical depth below the average low-tide water level; and the tunnel was designed and built deep enough to allow for a future enlargement of the shipping channel to 1,000 feet of horizontal width and 55 feet of vertical depth below the average low-tide water level. I don’t get it. If they do need to expand it, are they going to push the tunnel sections down 10 feet deeper into the mud and rebuild another island 200 feet further back? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/13 "2005-02-23T21:42:41Z")
I don’t mind suspension bridges, because somehow the towers make it seem “safe.” But [this bridge](http://home.earthlink.net/~humungus/bridge.jpg) freaks me out every time I drive over it. Very high, and small guard-rails. Just a great view and a looooooooooong drop to the water! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/14 "2005-02-23T21:46:49Z")
I have nightmares about driving up on the cables of suspension bridges. I also have ones where I’m driving on a bridge, and all of a sudden I notice that there’s a big gap in the bridge, and my car goes flying off. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/15 "2005-02-23T21:47:12Z")
I guess the bridgeaphobiacs aren’t keen on the original Tacoma Narrows-AKA Galloping Gertie. Some recent reading was a NTSB report about a towboat/barge that went off channel and hit a support pier for I-40, dropping out a 503’ section of the interstate. 8 cars and 3 tractor-trailers drove either into the river or onto the collapsed section of roadway. _Driving along, change the radio station…WTF HAPPENED TO THE ROAD?_ :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/16 "2005-02-23T21:48:49Z")
I feel the same way about the [Tappan Zee Bridge](http://www.ursimaging.com/2002onlineportfolio/bridges/TappanZee/images/v1.jpg). _shudder_ And I even have to _pay_ to go over the damned thing. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/17 "2005-02-23T21:49:38Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > I get scared that when I drive under an overpass a semi is going to fall off the bridge and smush me flat. Aiee! This started happening after I saw a particularly gruesome crash on I-65, where a mobile home really was smashed flat as a pancake under a semi. Terrible. I don’t know why I get in the car anymore, ever. [Or the whole bridge could collapse on your car.](http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0310/22/m08.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/18 "2005-02-23T22:11:53Z")
Or you could be driving under a railway bridge and have [a train fall](http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=8249) [on your car](http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-212762.html). I grew up in that neighbourhood and know exactly where this was; I went to the school mentioned in the second link, but before it was Leslie McFarlane Public School, it was the hell-school known as Whitby Senior Public School. I escaped, grew up, and went to university before they built the bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/19 "2005-02-23T22:25:40Z")
I have a similar fear of bridges. I think I owe it all to one bridge. In this area we had the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. When I was a kid I was afraid of the Skyway Bridge before I even saw it. I’d have nightmares that it was something like one of those hot wheels circley things and I’d worry that my car would fall off. When I did finally have to go over the bridge it was not as bad as my nightmares but still pretty scary. Eventually I was old enough to drive and my family moved across the bridge to Sarasota for a summer but we went back and forth a lot. If I drove, I went the long way through Tampa. I think I only got up the nerve to drive over the Skyway a few times and it made me very nervous. I had a small car and it didn’t have a lot of pickup and I was afraid I was going to roll backwards off the bridge. Eventually we moved back to St. Pete. My fears were not exactly unfounded when [a freighter rammed the bridge](http://www2.sptimes.com/weather/SW.2.html) and knocked down one of the spans in 1980 causing several people to fall to their deaths. Thankfully I was not on the bridge at the time but the images of that span just ending and the car hanging on the edge still haunt me. The incline was so great that you really couldn’t tell that part of the bridge was gone until you got to the top. Damn, I still get the shivers looking at those pictures and thinking about it. For some crazy reason, about 4 years later I decided to work across the bridge in Bradenton. The new bridge was still uncompleted so this meant that the remaining span was used and it was one lane in each direction. It was even worse than driving it before since now you only had a thin line separating you from oncoming traffic. Plus when you got to the top, if you looked over at the other span you just saw it disappear into space. It was unnerving. I eventually realized I could not drive an extra hour or two through Tampa all the time and had to drive over the bridge. I kept my eyes forward most of the time, my hands would get really sweaty (damn they get sweaty just thinking about this) and I’d quickly take one hand off the wheel to wipe off the sweat. In high winds you could feel the bridge sway. When it rained or was foggy you prayed a lot. They closed the bridge if the weather was really bad. Sometimes I just couldn’t get up the nerve to drive it. The new bridge is not without it’s faults and it’s also unnerving but it’s 1000 times better than the horror that was the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/20 "2005-02-23T22:33:17Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I don’t mind suspension bridges, because somehow the towers make it seem “safe.” But [this bridge](http://home.earthlink.net/~humungus/bridge.jpg) freaks me out every time I drive over it. Very high, and small guard-rails. Just a great view and a looooooooooong drop to the water! :eek: Hey! I can see your nightmare from here! It’s pretty freaky from below, too, especially in a small boat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574.md?page=2)