Roads that you have been on before disaster

[Roadgeekteen]

What roads/bridges have you been on that no longer exist due to a disaster/collapse? For me, the only one I can think of is I-95 in Philly before the collapse. I've never been on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but I'm sure many have.

[JayhawkCO]

I never made it on the Key, but I was on I-35W a ton as a kid. I've also driven the PCH before the rockslides that have made sections impassible.

[bing101]

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge the old eastern span before the 1989 quake. 

[jlam]

CA 150 just north of Santa Paula. It was recently wiped out due to a landslide.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I-35W, though I don't think I had been on it at a time close to the collapse since it wasn't on the family's normal travel patterns.

[Max Rockatansky]

I got a whole bunch of photos of Nacimiento-Fergusson Road in Big Sur shortly before fire took it out.  Similarly CA 236 looks way different post fire than when I took my pictures. 

Aside from that there is dozens of roads taken out by fire, floods, mudslides and other like disasters that I've been prior to those events occurring. I never thought to sit down and compile a list.

[hbelkins]

I've driven on both I-95 in Philly and the Key Bridge.

I've also driven a bunch of roads in Kentucky that ended up being severely damaged by flooding or slides.

[Amaury]

Washington State Route 504 twice when I went to Johnston Ridge Observatory, once by myself in 2021 and once with my mom in 2022. There was a landside that wiped out one of the bridges last year, not too long before it was supposed to open for the season. It's not permanent, though, and they've been working on repairing it. I don't know what the current progress is.

[tdindy88]

I was on the North Entrance Road out of Yellowstone National Park between Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardiner less than one year (2021) before flooding took out sections of the road through the river canyon. As far as I know that road has not been reopened and a temporary road was built to the west.

[SEWIGuy]

What roads/bridges have you been on that no longer exist due to a disaster/collapse? For me, the only one I can think of is I-95 in Philly before the collapse. I've never been on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but I'm sure many have.

I drove over the Mianus River Bridge multiple times prior to its 1983 collapse. My grandparents actually lived about a quarter mile from the site and we were supposed to go out there a couple weeks afterwards, but because the traffic was so bad, they came to visit us instead.

[bing101]

I-5 at CA-14 Interchange before the 1994 Northridge Quake. 

[SectorZ]

I've been on a few bridges that got significantly damaged or destroyed in flash flooding around New England. Nothing that people beyond locals would remember years later. This includes one only a few miles away that was partially washed away after 12+ inches of rain over two weeks in March 2010.

Also was on the Key Bridge back in 2019.

[Jim]

I'd traveled many of the ones mentioned already (Key Bridge, I-95 Philadelphia, I-35W, YNP North Entrance) but I'll add the one that hit closest to home - the Thruway bridge over the Schoharie Creek that collapsed in 1987.  Detours went through Amsterdam, and right by the pet shop I worked part time at on Route 5.  I can distinctly remember going to see it from the overpass up the hill east of there and being amazed at both the empty road below and of course the giant section missing.

[gonealookin]

I lived in Hayward, CA when the quake hit the Bay Area in October 1989, and lived in Alameda before that, so I was on the Cypress Viaduct (CA 17, then I-880) a fair amount before that thing came down in the quake.  Also the old Embarcadero Freeway in S.F. (didn't actually collapse in the quake but was damaged to the point it had to be closed, and never reopened before being torn down).

When I was first driving, Carquinez Scenic Drive (briefly US 40 way back when) between Martinez and Port Costa was still open to vehicular traffic, so I drove that once or twice.  Not quite a "disaster" but it closed due to landslides around 1982 and was never reopened.  It's now a multi-use recreational path within an East Bay regional park.

[Great Lakes Roads]

I-95 north of Philly
The Key Bridge in Baltimore

[dlsterner]

What roads/bridges have you been on that no longer exist due to a disaster/collapse? For me, the only one I can think of is I-95 in Philly before the collapse. I've never been on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but I'm sure many have.

Been over the Francis Scott Key bridge many a time.  I liked it as an alternative between my house in central Maryland and heading NW of Baltimore on I-95, especially at times when the tunnels might have heavy traffic.  (this was in the days before you could see traffic on Google Maps).

[74/171FAN]

I've driven on both I-95 in Philly and the Key Bridge.

I've also driven a bunch of roads in Kentucky that ended up being severely damaged by flooding or slides.

Obviously I have driven I-95 and the Key Bridge, but the second portion of HB's post is what I was really thinking about in regard to this thread such as when I clinched PA 263 1.5 weeks before the section just south of PA 32 was damaged by Hurricane Ida or just PA 611 in general as it has dealt with long-term closures south of Easton and in the Delaware Water Gap the last few years.

[Quillz]

Many. Driven on CA-1, CA-27, CA-150, US-101, and many others all before some incident shut them down for extended periods of time.

[GaryV]

I was on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge when I was 5 years old. That would have been the original 2-lane structure; I don't think it was the one struck and destroyed by the ship.

I may have been on both spans (nb and sb) when I was in high school or college. In that case I would have been on the span that suffered the disaster. But it's more likely that we didn't go over the bridge both ways, since at least one of the trips we were going to or from Disney.

[Flint1979]

I had been on the Nine Mile Road bridge in Hazel Park, Michigan plenty of times before the tanker explosion destroyed the overpass about 15 years ago. Also remember how that one happened, a car going way too fast on I-75 hit a gas tanker making the gas tanker explode.