Notes
I have no idea what connection this has with Hood River, but it's an interesting photo and it's in our archives. The Whiteson Bridge was in Yamhill County, where Highway 99W crosses the Yamhill River near Amity. I was only slightly surprised to find there is a Bridge Failure Database on the internet which gives further details. The cause of this bridge collapse was "Height of truck bigger than maximum headroom of portal frame." Now we know why they go through such trouble to indicate the maximum clearance on such structures.
If this post sparks further interest in the subject, the database was developed as part of a 2004 doctoral thesis in engineering by Daniel Imhof. In a field rife with technobabble, it is nice to see Dr. Imhof uses chapter headings such as "Why Bridges Fall Down."
Category: [default]
Comments
Apparently in those days there were no clearance signs posted. May have had something to do with the weight of the truck. Can't figure out what his load might be.
Charlott on 5th October 2011 @ 7:12am
When I first opened up the photo, I thought the river didn't look right for this area.
But it definitely looks like those little slow moving rivers in the Tualatin Valley.
The truck or load doesn't look high enough to cause damage, so I assume the load has already been moved.
You can see a man dragging something.
l.e. on 5th October 2011 @ 7:44am