Another Bridge ... another time

Silver Bridge Collapse

Intro:

On December 15,1967 at approximately 5 p.m., the U.S. Highway 35 bridge connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio suddenly collapsed into the Ohio River. At the time of failure, thirty- seven vehicles were crossing the bridge span, and thirty-one of those automobiles fell with the bridge. Forty- six individuals perished with the buckling of the bridge and nine were seriously injured. Along with the numerous fatalities and injuries, a major transportation route connecting West Virginia and Ohio was destroyed, disrupting the lives of many and striking fear across the nation.


Silver Bridge

Intro:

The Silver Bridge was an eyebar chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and was named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio (near Gallipolis, Ohio) over the Ohio River.

On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed while it was choked with rush hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Investigation of the wreckage pointed to the cause of the collapse being the failure of a single eye-bar in a suspension chain, due to a small defect only 0.1 inches (2.54 mm) deep. It was also noted that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it was originally designed for and was poorly maintained.

The Silver Bridge

Excerpt:

At approximately 5:04 pm December 15, 1967 the Silver Bridge Collapsed and forty-six people lost their lives. Forty-four bodies were recovered and two are still missing. This page is dedicated to those who lost their lives on that cold December day.
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"I was living in Point Pleasant at the time of the collapse and was supposed to go shopping in Gallipolis around 4:30 pm with a friend who ended up working late. My father turned the lights on the tragedy so that the rescue workers could continue after dark that first night. There, but for the grace of God, I am still here."


The Collapse of the Silver Bridge

Excerpt (comment: this article is the most detailed!)

Many heroic eyewitnesses tried to help the victims who fell in the water. Rescue crews were on the disaster scene within minutes and were able to save some of the people from drowning in the Ohio River. Witnesses indicated that many of the vehicles were floating downstream while passengers would beat on their windows trying to escape. One eyewitness described seeing a truck driver standing on the top of his truck cob yelling for help as his vehicle slowly floated downstream in the cold water. William Needham, a truck driver f rom Kernersville, North Carolina, barely escaped death. He was in the cab of his truck driving across the bridge, when the collapse occurred. He managed to survive, but his partner in the truck cab never escaped the water of the Ohio River. His partner was asleep in the rear cab and had strapped himself in for safety. When the bridge collapsed, he had no chance of escaping. Needham claims that the truck sank to the bottom and that he narrowly escaped. He broke the window to the cab, grabbed a box to help himself surface, and barely made it to the top of the water before he ran out of breath.

Another survivor, Howard Boggs, of Gailipolis, Ohio, lost his small family in the fall. His wife, Marjorie, and seventeen-month-old daughter were in their vehicle when the bridge collapsed. He claims that Marjorie noticed that the bridge was 'quivering' as they became stalled on the bridge in the heavy rush hour traffic. She then asked, "What will we do if this thing breaks?" The next thing Boggs remembers was scrambling for his life by breaking out his car window. Sadly, his wife and child perished in the accident. He could not aid them in their attempt to be freed from the sinking car.

Map: Point Pleasant, WV

Comments:

1. Being that Point Pleasant is just a hundred miles or so from Cincinnati (the place of my upbringing); this was big news in my hometown back in 1967.
   
2. I was a Senior in High School and I did not care at all about God, my relationship with God, my mortality, morality, or my eternal destiny! I was an unsaved Protestant who only occasionally attended church.
   
3. The pictures of the deceased and missing in the Minneapolis bridge collapse tug at my heart: A woman just a couple of years older than my spouse perished in the collapse. A young pregnant Somali woman and her young child are presumed to be in the murky Mississippi waters!
   
4. For me, the Silver Bridge collapse was a defining event of my youth! I thought about eternity. I thought about the seeming randomness and suddenness of people dropping into the icy Ohio River!
   
5. I know now that life is not random! God is absolutely sovereign over the events and affairs of mankind (and indeed the entire Universe!) ("[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will")
   
6. God used that event in my heart to "sober me up". (I Thessalonians 5:6, "let us watch and be sober")
   
7. The next Fall, in English literature, one of my class reading assignments was the famous Jonathan Edwards message
   Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. (I find it hard to believe that this would be one of the reading assignments in a secular (University of Cincinnati) college. But it was!)
   
   
   
   1. The sermon is from this text: "Their foot shall slide in due time" (Deuteronomy 32:35)
      
   2. The intro: "In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed"
      
   
   
8. God used the Silver Bridge collapse and this message (along with Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, a book I had to read in History class!), to work repentance and faith in my heart!
   
9. There's a lot to be thankful about in the Minneapolis tragedy:
   
   
   
   1. In contrast with the Silver Bridge collapse in the dead of Winter, this tragedy was on a mild Summer evening.
      
   2. Every one of those school children on the school bus survived. One young man heroically ushered them to safety!
      
   3. Traffic was light (rush hour had waned), the river flow (because of drought) was 15% of normal and low, and hundreds of rescue personnel arrived within minutes (also)!
      
   4. One person we know of (Rachel's roommate's sister's boyfriend) was injured slightly, hospitalized and has now been released.
      
   5. On his normal commute route, my manager, Tom B., drove under the bridge on West River Road just an hour before the collapse. Had he been under the bridge at the time of the collapse, he would have been crushed!
      
   6. Crystal Manning and Michael Stoner survived despite the fact that their jeep had sunk to the bottom of the river. "I actually felt the jeep settle on the bottom of the river, actually felt it stop sinking," said Michael. "I was trying to get out, and it got to the point where I was uncontrollably inhaling water." Moments before, he had rolled down his window. That act enabled them to escape!
      
   7. A Wells Fargo employee, Peter Siddons, escaped injury
      
   8. Another Wells Fargo employee was on the bridge and is hospitalized but survived!
      
   9. A paralyzed man skidded his handicapped van to a stop just feet from going into the water!
      
   10. The death toll looks to be much less than it could have been.
       
   
   
10. My prayer is that this bridge tragedy will work in peoples' hearts as the Silver Bridge tragedy worked in mine! God is gracious, our days are short, and the Savior still saves!
    

Third photo is from The River Museum