American Scientist

The bridge across the Ohio River between Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, which had served the region well since 1926, collapsed catastrophically 10 days before Christmas in 1967, killing 46 people and injuring dozens more. Officially named Point Pleasant Bridge, the structure was commonly referred to by its sobriquet, Silver Bridge. In fact, this nickname was often preceded by the definite article, because the structure was believed to have been the first bridge in America on which aluminum paint had been used. Just as with the iron-and-glass Crystal Palace that housed the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, what was once the silver-colored bridge’s catchy unofficial name became its virtually official one. Although it was a critical link on U.S. Route 35 connecting the state capitals of Charleston and Columbus, outside of that region of the country and outside the bridge-building community, the Point Pleasant Bridge was not a widely known structure. But the implications of the failure and its cause would be profound for the bridge-building community and for the entire nation. The official investigation of the collapse was conducted by the then newly constituted National Transportation Safety Board, which is the agency that now is perhaps known most visibly for its investigations of airplane accidents.