Didn't get around to reading this one until just now. I love it!
One interesting thing about the crack in the Memphis bridge that I bet would pique your interest, if you don't know this already: It may have been there from the time the M bridge was first assembled, back in the 70s. Not that it would have been visible at the time, but the metallurgical postmortem of the damaged girder indicated it was likely the product of outdated welding techniques that can lead to what's called "hydrogen cracking." All those decades, there was a subsurface fissure lurking in the steel, just waiting for the right combination of forces to trigger its growth.
Well, also: I assume it wasn't visible back when you were road tripping, but actually we don't know how long it was big enough to see. Since 2016 at least, probably 2014, very possibly longer! And we only know it was around during those earlier years because of random people kayaking or taking riverboat cruises on the Mississippi who, after the news of the bridge closure in 2021, dug through their old photographs and noticed a tiny, thin line on that member of the bridge, at that exact point.
Wait, or, did I make you edit these stories and this is all extremely old news to you? If so, I'm sorry.
Didn't get around to reading this one until just now. I love it!
One interesting thing about the crack in the Memphis bridge that I bet would pique your interest, if you don't know this already: It may have been there from the time the M bridge was first assembled, back in the 70s. Not that it would have been visible at the time, but the metallurgical postmortem of the damaged girder indicated it was likely the product of outdated welding techniques that can lead to what's called "hydrogen cracking." All those decades, there was a subsurface fissure lurking in the steel, just waiting for the right combination of forces to trigger its growth.
Well, also: I assume it wasn't visible back when you were road tripping, but actually we don't know how long it was big enough to see. Since 2016 at least, probably 2014, very possibly longer! And we only know it was around during those earlier years because of random people kayaking or taking riverboat cruises on the Mississippi who, after the news of the bridge closure in 2021, dug through their old photographs and noticed a tiny, thin line on that member of the bridge, at that exact point.
Wait, or, did I make you edit these stories and this is all extremely old news to you? If so, I'm sorry.
Wow. Did not know! (Of if I once did, I'd forgotten.) Tourist pics as found evidence is my kind of story.