The Collapse That Led to the National Bridge Inspection Standards
- Course Number: S1041
- Credits: 2 hours
- Instructor: Ellen C. Huang, PE
- Price: $20
Course Outline
The Silver Bridge collapse (Point Pleasant, West Virginia - Gallipolis, Ohio) remains one of the most important structural-failure case studies in U.S. bridge engineering. The event highlights how a single critical flaw - combined with limited redundancy, difficult-to-detect damage, and increasing service demands - can lead to sudden, catastrophic failure. This course explains what was built, what happened, what investigators found, and how the bridge community changed inspection, design philosophy, and risk management practices afterward.
At the end of this course, there will be a multiple-choice, open-book quiz designed to enhance your understanding of the course material.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this course, the student will:
- Be able to describe the Silver Bridge’s key structural system and how its design differed from more redundant bridge types;
- Be able to identify inspection and design challenges associated with fracture-critical, non-redundant members;
- Be able to translate the Silver Bridge case into practical lessons for modern bridge design, operation, and asset management; and
- Be able to apply prevention strategies—inspection, load management, redundancy, and retrofit concepts—to reduce similar risks.