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This will likely turn out to be the fault of maintenance rather than design. It could be a lie but I heard a construction crew was stockpiling gravel on the bridge to the tune of 300 tons.


Were the bridge overloaded at one point I'd expect it to "cave in" near that point. Instead it seems to have more-or-less detached from the ends and fallen all together?

The bridge was inspected in recent years by several different groups of engineers, not just road guys from the highway department, and nobody saw anything like this. I don't rule out a subtle weakness in the design. But they probably do spray that metal bridge with tons of corrosives every winter so who knows.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock