At least, that’s where they seem to be going, these days. Things are falling down, whether it’s the Concorde overpass in Montreal last year (five dead), the I35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis a month ago (13 dead) or the recent collapse of a bridge under construction in Fenghuang, China (at least 36 dead). And there are plenty of bridges in bad shape in the U.S. (and in Canada and elsewhere in the world, too!).

And as recently as this past weekend, there were more scares. In Montreal, a big section of downtown was closed for much of the weekend over fears a concrete slab in the “underground city” would collapse. It has been shored up with many supporting pylons, surely not a permanent solution.

Other bridges, such as the ten-year-old Confederation Bridge to PEI, seem to be doing just fine. Excuse me, did you say…TEN years old? I should hope not!

But today is the anniversary of another major collapse disaster. The Pont de Québec had its first (and most disastrous) collapse one hundred years ago today. It is an event Canadian engineers often learn about in their first-year classes; it is a lesson in responsibility, human error and humility. Some initial calculations weren’t checked and the bridge couldn’t even support its own weight. It collapsed under construction, killing 75 workers. Apparently, at 17h37 today (local time), church bells in many communities will ring, to mark the anniversary and commemorate the dead.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 11h32 and is filed under Canada, Montreal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.