# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Rock\_n\_Roach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Rock\_n\_Roach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rock_n_Roach)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/21 "2005-02-23T22:56:45Z")
Pittsburgh had a bridge that for a while was called [The Bridge To Nowhere](http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/prev/archives/newsarch/ask/ask03/ya020503.html). Construction started in 1959 then was delayed in 1963 due to disputes over where the exit ramps should go and wasn’t fully finished until 1969. There is a story of someone who actually drove off it documented in one of Rick Sebak’s (WQED Pittsburgh) videos\* Flying Off The Bridge To Nowhere and Other Tales of Pittsburgh’s Bridges \* ---
**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, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/22 "2005-02-23T23:34:20Z")
> [@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: My God, that is the coolest thing EVER. Where/what is that? ---
**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, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/23 "2005-02-23T23:39:37Z")
> [@caphis](#): > > My God, that is the coolest thing EVER. > > Where/what is that? **caphis** , it’s the Coronado Bridge, across the San Diego Harbor. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/24 "2005-02-23T23:56:21Z")
About ten years ago, I worked for a landscaping company a few hundred miles north of there, just outside Annapolis, Maryland. We had one job on the Eastern Shore, across the [Chesapeake Bay Bridge](http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Bay_Bridge.jpg). Every morning, I drove a truck a couple of years older than I was over that thing to the site, and then back home every afternoon. Now, while the engine of the truck had been lovingly maintained (at least well enough that it only broke down twice a month), the floorboards hadn’t. There were some pretty good size rusted out holes in the floor, so that when you were driving, you could look down and see the road. What you can’t tell from that picture is that the bridge deck between the suspension towers is steel grating. So twice a day, I would steal glances downward, through the floor of my truck, through the deck of bridge, to the Chesapeake bay 200 feet below. It was really cool and really disconcerting at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/25 "2005-02-23T23:58:01Z")
I great up in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and I never realized that bridge-tunnels like that are unique to the area - but everyone here seems positively flabbergasted. In Hampton Roads alone, we have the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge (pictured), the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (very similar), and then the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which is a ~20 mile long series of bridges and tunnels. It’s really no big deal driving through the thing. You’re only in the tunnel for about 45 seconds or so. The real irritation is that there’s no passing! 😉 Here’s the [Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel](http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I64_VA_HRBT.html). ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/26 "2005-02-24T00:02:18Z")
:eek: Thanks a bunch for the massive case of the heebie jeebies. You’re all a real swell bunch. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/27 "2005-02-24T01:32:34Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > 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: That was in Oklahoma on a stretch of I-40 that I have driven across many times in the past. [Here’s](http://www.disasterrelief.org/Disasters/020530OklaBridge2/) a link with pictures of what it looked like. The brutal thing about it is that you wouldn’t even consider yourself driving on a bridge - it’s very long and flat and the view is of very large muddy lakes on either side, so the coloring kinda washes out and you’re kinda hypnotized. I can easily seeing people unable to notice in time. Check this out from the link above: > [@](#): > > More than 500 feet of the 1,988-foot bridge collapsed and, according to eye witnesses, about a dozen vehicles fell through the gap into the river. > > At least four survivors were pulled from their sinking cars by nearby fishermen who watched as cars and trucks followed each other into the water. > > “It was just one car after another hitting the end of the bridge at 70 mph. Nobody could see that the bridge was gone,” eyewitness Norman Barton told CNN. ---
**Author:** ![Spacegirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Spacegirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spacegirl)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/28 "2005-02-24T02:21:15Z")
My friend asked me a question about the underwater tunnel bridge: Couldn’t a big wave come and fill up the tunnel with water?? ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/29 "2005-02-24T02:34:58Z")
I had no idea that I had problems with tunnels until I drove from NE Ohio to Knoxville TN, through WV and part of VA last August. I hit those tunnels at the VA border - there are 2 or three of them on the route I took, and it was all I could do to keep myself from panicking with the first one. The second one, I was able to prepare myself for the stress, but I still wasn’t happy about it. Next time I drive that down towards TN, I’m taking the ok route - across Ohio, through KY and down into TN. Avoiding all the tunnels. ---
**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 24, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/30 "2005-02-24T03:10:35Z")
I remember hearing about the Oklahoma bridge collapse. Did they ever determine what happened with the barge captain/pilot/whatever? The guy who was responsible for the Summit Venture hitting the Skyway had a miserable tortured life after that. His life was ruined, he developed MS and eventually died. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/31 "2005-02-24T03:53:41Z")
> [@BluMoon](#): > > My friend asked me a question about the underwater tunnel bridge: > > Couldn’t a big wave come and fill up the tunnel with water?? I guess it _could_, but you’re talking about something like if a large meteor hit the bay nearby. Even something like the recent Tsunami would be lucky to make 2-inches deep of water accumulate in there. The tunnels are BIG - they’re very long, are a very, VERY gradual slope, and have drains and things in them. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/32 "2005-02-24T04:18:51Z")
> [@Draelin](#): > > 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. I got you [another](http://www.fhp.state.fl.us/graphics/FS040903a.jpg) [one](http://mechanics.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/~sugawara/photos/img0087.gif) for your [dreams](http://sunshine-skyway-bridge.wikiverse.org/media/2/20/skyway2.jpg). This is the new Sunshine Skyway that **Wile E** referred to. It is in fact much better than the old one, but it’s still just shy of terrifying. The 4-mile-long roadbed, at its highest point, is ~200 feet over the water, and the top of the support towers is twice that. It’s constructed like a causeway, though – only the standard 30-inch-or-so concrete barriers along the edges of the road. When you reach the top, you cannot tell whether or not the road is still there ahead of you. When you take into account what happened to the old Skyway, it kind of gives ya a little pause. I do not drive this when it is foggy, because that’s how it happened last time. Sure is pretty to look at, though. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/33 "2005-02-24T04:18:53Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > 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? They’re talking about the channel, which they could presumably dredge further. The tunnel sections are already deep enough to permit a larger channel if they chose to built it. At least that’s how I read it. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/34 "2005-02-24T05:27:48Z")
Maybe the [the ramps to nowhere](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/67389_get22.shtml) on Seattle’s SR520, > [@](#): > > “I have looked at those ramps on 520 for over 30 years now, and I just can’t figure it out.” > > He went on, “Do they have anything to do with the other ‘ramps to nowhere’ that at one time covered I-5 near downtown?” > > Answer: What you see on 520 are the remains of a thwarted project called the R.H. Thomson Expressway. To quote [HistoryLink.org](http://HistoryLink.org), it was to be part of a “ring road” system of interlocking freeways including state Route 99 and Interstate 5. Or[those on the I-5/I-90 interchange](http://nwhighways.amhosting.net/i90page.html) are more to your liking. > [@](#): > > The I-90 / I-5 interchange in the distance was the location of Seattle’s infamous “ramps to nowhere.” These were finished in 1990, save for a couple of ramps to the cancelled R.H. Thomson Expressway which were demolished. (There are still ghost ramps for the R.H. Thomson near Husky Stadium on S.R. 520.) If you scroll down to the [eighth picture](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2002/0407/cover.html) you can see them. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/35 "2005-02-24T07:25:54Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > 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: > > [http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/bridgetunnel.asp](http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/bridgetunnel.asp) > > 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. Hell, we’ve had one of those for eight years now. You drive way out into Tokyo harbor, until the land is almost out of sight, and then… it all just disappears under the waves. [http://web-japan.org/atlas/architecture/arc06.html](http://web-japan.org/atlas/architecture/arc06.html) Pleasant dreams 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Imbrium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Imbrium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imbrium)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/36 "2005-02-24T08:23:13Z")
> [@Draelin](#): > > My parents live just outside Charleston, and I’ve seen some of their new “safer” bridges under construction. All I can say is _yikes_. I live outside Charleston, and I’m excited to see the [new bridge](http://monitor.admin.musc.edu/~cfs/bridge/bridge.html) going up. It’s certainly much better than the old bridges, where all that stands between you and the river is a flimsy metal railing. [Northbound](http://southeastroads.com/south_carolina001/us-017_nb_silas_pearman_bridge_12.jpg) isn’t nearly as bad as [southbound](http://archives.charleston.net/news/bridge/bridgetr.jpg). Those lanes are _tiny_. I know people who won’t drive over the bridges. I think it’s kinda fun though, in a scary sorta way. I’ll be glad when they finish the new 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 24, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/37 "2005-02-24T14:58:08Z")
> [@Bambi Hassenpfeffer](#): > > I got you [another](http://www.fhp.state.fl.us/graphics/FS040903a.jpg) [one](http://mechanics.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/~sugawara/photos/img0087.gif) for your [dreams](http://sunshine-skyway-bridge.wikiverse.org/media/2/20/skyway2.jpg). This is the new Sunshine Skyway that **Wile E** referred to. It is in fact much better than the old one, but it’s still just shy of terrifying. > > The 4-mile-long roadbed, at its highest point, is ~200 feet over the water, and the top of the support towers is twice that. It’s constructed like a causeway, though – only the standard 30-inch-or-so concrete barriers along the edges of the road. When you reach the top, you cannot tell whether or not the road is still there ahead of you. When you take into account what happened to the old Skyway, it kind of gives ya a little pause. I do not drive this when it is foggy, because that’s how it happened last time. > > Sure is pretty to look at, though. Wasn’t there some talk about this bridge already starting to fall apart? Cracked pylons or some such thing? I’m not crazy about it either but after having driven the single span of the old Skyway, this one is tons better. My palms don’t get nearly as sweaty driving it. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/38 "2005-02-24T17:27:40Z")
> [@Wile E](#): > > Wasn’t there some talk about this bridge already starting to fall apart? Cracked pylons or some such thing? I’m not crazy about it either but after having driven the single span of the old Skyway, this one is tons better. My palms don’t get nearly as sweaty driving it. Yes. The pylons supporting the center span are starting to show signs of premature failure, including cracks in the main supports, erosion of the piers upon which those pylons are built, and corrosion on the cables of the cable-stayed portion. The DOT says it’s still safe to drive on, but my fear is that something like [this](http://www.bayciti.net/prd/10.jpg) will happen while I’m on it. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/39 "2005-02-24T18:51:26Z")
I’m **terrified** of bridges. > [@Dooku](#): > > That was in Oklahoma on a stretch of I-40 that I have driven across many times in the past. [Here’s](http://www.disasterrelief.org/Disasters/020530OklaBridge2/) a link with pictures of what it looked like. I seem to recall a similar accident, like 20 or 30 years ago (??), on a Louisiana bridge, and I want to say [Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=49848) (the longest bridge in the world!), but that could be wrong, and I can’t seem to find any online stories about it with such vague memories at work here. But that story always scared the shit out of me – cars just driving off the broken edge of the bridge at 70mph, plunging to their deaths. Shudder. And that Millau Bridge, [all shrouded in fog](http://www.manzonderkop.be/Post/?P_ID=5323), would have me bawling, vomiting and quivering on the floor if anyone ever tried to make me go over it. No way in hell. The local bridge I simply will not drive over is the [Vincent Thomas bridge](http://www.fotosearch.com/BDX209/bxp36995/) into San Pedro. I had a panic attack the last time I even drove _near_ it, thinking I _might_ have to get on it to get to my destination, and there might not have been an exit I could’ve taken to avoid it (thank Og I didn’t end up having to). ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574/40 "2005-02-24T19:02:08Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > 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? I read that quote as simply saying the tunnel is larger than currently necessary, so should the shipping channel in future need to be dredged to a greater extent than at present, the tunnel won’t become an obstacle. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-bridge-driving-nightmare-come-to-life/291574.md?page=3)