Did London Bridge Fall Down?

摘要

London Bridge was falling down. Bridges should not fall down, but sometimes they do! Human failure is usually credited as the cause of most bridge collapses ands failures, but there is usually a technical reason behind the human failure. This paper examines several historic and contemporary bridge collapses and failures and the human and engineering reasons for them. Perhaps the study of bridge failures may aid the bridge engineering profession in understanding what can go wrong, and ways to prevent future incidents.