Scariest bridge you've ever driven across

[Alex4897]

Market Street Bridge, over the Ohio River from downtown Steubenville to WV.

Grating the whole way, 11 foot clearance, rather narrow

I looked at it on Google Maps and somehow was not surprised that it was closed when the satellite and street view pics were taken.

[oscar]

Try this rickety-looking bridge (one of the Wainiha River crossings on HI 560 in northern Kauai):





I've heard that this bridge was later temporarily replaced, or reinforced, pending construction of a permanent replacement.  Overweight loads weakened it to the point that even a small firetruck could collapse it (and there's no alternate route to the northwest corner of Kauai). 

Here's what it looks like now.  The steel reinforcement under the deck, and especially the side and guard rails, make it look much less scary.  Still an 8-ton weight limit, though (just enough for a small fully-loaded fire truck).

[Jardine]

I drove over this a few times.  Just off HWY 30, NE of Missouri Valley Iowa. 

Unfortunately, a tornado slid the bridge off it's east abutment and the impact with the river bottom destroyed it totally.

Probably one of the lowest number of pounds of steel per foot of bridge ever erected, still, I would bet more than a few farmers drove some wagon, loaded far in excess of the posted limit and it held.


(first time for posting a picture here, if I crash the internet, please accept my apologies)


(appreciate the help there, wasn't so bad afterall)

[hotdogPi]

Post the image address, not the page address.

[Thing 342]

Near Great Cacapon, WV.

[Road Hog]

I imagine driving some of these bridges was no fun in the 70s, when everyone drove land yachts.

[Duke87]

Near Great Cacapon, WV.

No street view but in the satellite image the water appears to be a bit lower. So, guessing this was during a flood? Lucky the bridge didn't wash out if the water came up that high.

[Thing 342]

Near Great Cacapon, WV.

No street view but in the satellite image the water appears to be a bit lower. So, guessing this was during a flood? Lucky the bridge didn't wash out if the water came up that high.

Based on what I saw from the rest of the river, this seemed to be the normal level.

[NE2]

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=3857

[ronaldlee11]

The scariest bridge that I've ever driven across is the Ironton Russell Bridge connecting Russell ky with ironton oh. Thankfully the state of ohio is replacing it a new bridge expected to open in 2015.

[pghgal_90]

Driving back to Ohio U one winter from Pittsburgh, I took the "wrong" way (instead of taking our usual "safe" way of US 19 S > I-70 W > I-77 S and coming into Athens from US 50) and ended up fighting through a horrible snowstorm on Ohio Route 13, which is terrifying and scary and windy and in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention I was driving alone, and it was only starting to snow harder. I got detoured by some guy who threw flares onto the road, wearing coveralls and a big floppy jacket, and he told me the only way I could go any further south was to cross this quaint-but-at-the-time-terrifying covered bridge.

I crossed the bridge, listened to it shaking, drove THROUGH a person's farm, and after a few miles of winding very carefully through hills and roads with no guard rails to speak of the snow, I coasted down a hill at no more than 2 miles per hour and manage to drift into a frozen creek bed, stranding the front right wheel of my car over the lip of it. Two crossbow hunters in a massive truck luckily came by, saw that I was stuck and shaken up and crying, and hooked a strap up to my chassis and pulled me out. I was so thankful but so scared!

I will never, EVER, visit Trimble, OH, again.

[Duke87]

this quaint-but-at-the-time-terrifying covered bridge.

Your link isn't working for me.

[Alps]

this quaint-but-at-the-time-terrifying covered bridge.

Your link isn't working for me.

Alternate: http://goo.gl/maps/dSLT7

[TCN7JM]

It's not which bridge it was, but when I drove across it, and I don't think this even counts as a bridge (they built the land up around it; there's a railroad paralleling it on the west), but it was still across a large body of water, so I'm counting it.

Here it is, on US 83 in North Dakota. On the left is Lake Audubon, on the right is the gigantic Lake Sacagawea. Last April a gigantic ice storm hit the whole region, and it just so happened that I was stuck in North Dakota when it happened. I tried to return home, but it wasn't easy to do, and this "bridge" ended up being the scariest part of my trip.

Those wires on the eastern side of the highway were covered in shards of ice, and the wind kept blowing them every which way; toward the lakes, at the towers, and at the highway. Not to mention the highway was already covered in ice, so it was nearly impossible to control the car. Pretty much every car on the road, including mine, was slowed down to about 25 mph to avoid losing control of their car and falling in the lake while getting hit by ice shards.

I'm used to driving in winter weather by now, but this was terrifying. This part of the road is otherwise very beautiful and a joy to drive.
removed "s" from http ~S

[doogie1303]

The old Jamestown Bridge in RI was scary. It was a very narrow, very high two lane cantilever truss bridge with steep inclines from both directions. Traffic used to back up on it all the time, especially in the summer. I went over it once in 1991 before the new bridge was opened, didn't like it at all, the perspective you get going up to the main span makes it feel like you are driving on a ribbon into the sky.

At the top of the span there was a steel grate surface. One of my coworkers used to drive over it each day to go to work. A couple of times he got stuck in traffic at the top of the span and a truck would pass him in the opposite direction, the whole bridge would shake and sway.

It closed in 1992 when they opened the new bridge, but it took them till 2006 to demolish it. I'd drive by it every day on the way to work. I wanted to watch it being demolished but couldn't get out of work that day. That was weird the day of demolition, going to work and it was there, coming home, the main span was gone (gotta love dynamite).

There is a good writeup, photo gallery, and people's post of the bridge at this website:
www.artinruins.com/arch/?id=rip&pr=jamestown#top12

[spooky]

The old Jamestown Bridge in RI was scary. It was a very narrow, very high two lane cantilever truss bridge with steep inclines from both directions. Traffic used to back up on it all the time, especially in the summer. I went over it once in 1991 before the new bridge was opened, didn't like it at all, the perspective you get going up to the main span makes it feel like you are driving on a ribbon into the sky.

At the top of the span there was a steel grate surface. One of my coworkers used to drive over it each day to go to work. A couple of times he got stuck in traffic at the top of the span and a truck would pass him in the opposite direction, the whole bridge would shake and sway.

When I was growing up my grandparents loved to go for drives and one of my grandfather's go-to places was Jamestown. I remember many times my grandfather would open the door while sitting in traffic and ask us if we wanted to look down through the grate.

[mgk920]

My greatest 'white knuckle' bridge ride was the Sagamore Bridge in Massachusetts.  Four extremely narrow lanes (two each way) with enough traffic to warrant six lanes.  It should be twinned and then it would be a very comfortable three lanes in one direction, with the twin span carrying three lanes the other way.

Mike

[spooky]

My greatest 'white knuckle' bridge ride was the Sagamore Bridge in Massachusetts.  Four extremely narrow lanes (two each way) with enough traffic to warrant six lanes.  It should be twinned and then it would be a very comfortable three lanes in one direction, with the twin span carrying three lanes the other way.

Mike

The Sagamore's "twin" is the Bourne Bridge. it's a few miles down the canal and also carries two lanes each way!

[Pete from Boston]

I don't know that it is really scary to me, but I've never been on a bridge that moved as much as the "AFX Flex-Track" Wheeling Suspension Bridge.  I recall standing on the sidewalk and watching the bridge deck ripple in waves as cars passed.

[bugo]

I don't like to watch bridges being demolished.  Call it hyperbole, but watching a truss bridge being blown up is akin to watching a snuff film to me.

[MrDisco99]

I drove I-10 across the bay in Pensacola this past weekend and had a hard time keeping the car straight in the wind... one of my scarier driving moments.

[Legodinodoctor]

The bridge at Matanuska Glacier:



But realistically, I was more concerned that the road would slide off the side of the hill on the other side.

That looks like a roller coaster

[Roadrunner75]

I will not make the mistake again of getting in the far left EZ-Pass lane at the tolls EB for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (US 50/301), putting me right up against opposing traffic on the 3 lane WB (primarily) bridge:

https://www.google.com/maps?ll=39.004295,-76.398872&spn=0.000017,0.013078&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=39.004133,-76.400807&panoid=emCWTfVYiKj9jtkxdvq_6A&cbp=12,166.11,,0,2.36

Keep to the right.

I'm also glad someone nominated the old "Rickety Bridge" on NJ 147 in North Wildwood (since demolished) further back on this thread.

[Jardine]

I love this thread, and all the scary contenders, but I think actually having driven over the one I posted above, and then knowing a tornado destroyed it later on, makes mine for me, still the scariest.

I haven't driven over too many in this thread, Chesapeake and Wheeling spring to mind.  Ches was damn narrow for the height above the water, but I loved Wheeling, I think it being a Roebling made a difference.  If it does collapse with me on it, well, I'm the guy that was snuffed on the Wheeling bridge.  I've had chances at far less flattering forms of immortality . . . 

[Pete from Boston]

First Sunshine Skyway (modern) crossing was scary.  Flat, flat, flat, flat, ABRUPT INCLINE A MILE OUT TO SEA, decline, flat, flat, flat, flat.