Just before Christmas, on December 15, 1967, tragedy struck Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, on the Silver Bridge around 5:00 p.m. During the late afternoon rush hour, as dozens of cars were packed onto the bridge, the bridge collapsed. In all, 64 people plunged into the frigid waters, resulting in 46 deaths, nine injuries, and two bodies that were never found.
Some people blamed the accident on mechanical failure, while others blamed a mysterious creature in the region for the havoc that it caused on that day. The winged creature in question is better known by the name “The Mothman,” who has been reported to have red, glowing eyes, which would later spark a movie about the ordeal in 2002.
Sightings of the mythical beast came one year earlier, when local gravediggers first encountered what they described as a “brown human being” soaring over their heads.
But what really led to the Silver Bridge collapse during heavy rush-hour traffic into the Ohio River? Was it the “Mothman” or an actual mechanical failure?
A single fracture in an eye bar within the suspension chain was the root cause. The fracture, a result of stress corrosion and fatigue, led to a complete failure of the bridge because the bridge’s design lacked redundancy.
The failure was at a location that was inaccessible for visual inspection, and no inspection at that time in the late 1960s could have detected it.
Now, you know the truth.
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.
Image Credit: Wikipedia