Bridge disasters in the United States

The Madison Street bridge disaster occurred on November 1, 1893, in Portland, Oregon, United States, when a westbound streetcar drove off the open draw of the first Madison Street Bridge (since replaced by the Hawthorne Bridge). Seven people died. This remains the worst streetcar accident ever to occur in the city of Portland and also the worst bridge disaster in Portland history.

The Allen Street Bridge was a bridge over the Cowlitz River between Kelso, Washington and Longview, Washington that collapsed on January 3, 1923, killing as many as 35 people. It resulted in the deadliest bridge collapse in Washington history.

The Wabash Bridge was a railroad bridge across the Monongahela River at Pittsburgh. It was constructed between 1902 and 1904 by railroad magnate George J. Gould for his Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway.

The Meldrim trestle disaster occurred at Meldrim, Georgia, on June 28, 1959. Involved was a Seaboard Air Line mixed freight train that derailed over the Ogeechee River. Loaded LPG tank cars from the train plunged into the river below and ruptured. The resulting explosion and fire killed 23 people--including entire families and a woman who was eight months pregnant--who were at the river that day as it was a popular area to swim and picnic at.

On September 22, 1993, an Amtrak Sunset Limited passenger train derailed on the CSX Transportation Big Bayou Canot Bridge near Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was caused by displacement of a span and deformation of the rails when a tow of heavy barges collided with the rail bridge eight minutes earlier. Forty-seven people were killed and 103 more were injured. To date, it is the deadliest train wreck in both Amtrak's history and Alabama's railway history. It is also the worst rail disaster in the United States since the 1958 Newark Bay rail accident, in which 48 people died.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, officially referred to as the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge, is a pair of long beam bridges with a central tall cable-stayed bridge. It spans Lower Tampa Bay to connect Pinellas County (St. Petersburg, Florida) to Manatee County (Terra Ceia, Florida). The current Sunshine Skyway opened in 1987 and is the second bridge of that name on the site. It was designed by the Figg & Muller Engineering Group and built by the American Bridge Company. The bridge is considered the flagship bridge of Florida and serves as a gateway to Tampa Bay. The four-lane bridge carries Interstate 275 and U.S. Route 19, passing through Pinellas County, Hillsborough County and Manatee County. It is a toll bridge, with a toll assessed on two-axle vehicles traveling in either direction at a rate of $1.75 cash or $1.16 with the state's SunPass system.

On March 26, 2024, at 1:28 a.m. EDT (05:28 UTC), the main spans and the three nearest northeast approach spans of the Francis Scott Key Bridge across the Patapsco River in the Baltimore metropolitan area of Maryland, United States, collapsed after the container ship Dali struck one of its piers. Six members of a maintenance crew working on the roadway were killed, while two more were rescued from the river.

On June 11, 2023, a tanker truck carrying gasoline caught fire beneath the overpass that carries Interstate 95 (I-95) at the Pennsylvania Route 73 (PA 73, Cottman Avenue) interchange in the Tacony neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia. The extreme heat caused the northbound lanes to collapse and damaged the southbound lanes, closing roughly nine miles (14 km) of both directions of I-95, between the Betsy Ross Bridge/Aramingo Avenue (exit 26) and PA 63/Woodhaven Road (exit 35). The swift construction of a temporary roadway enabled traffic to resume on June 23, less than two weeks after the fire.

The Chester train wreck occurred on August 31, 1893, outside of Chester, Massachusetts. A bridge collapse plunged four train cars into the Westfield River, killing 14 people. An investigation by the Massachusetts Railroad Commission found that the bridge had been weakened by a maintenance crew that had removed rivets from the bridge.

The Fern Hollow Bridge is a bridge in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, that carries Forbes Avenue over a large ravine in Frick Park. The current bridge is the third on the site. The first Fern Hollow Bridge opened in 1901 as a steel deck arch, and was demolished in 1972 while the second bridge was being built. The second bridge opened in 1973 and collapsed on January 28, 2022. Construction of the third bridge began on May 9, 2022, and the third bridge was dedicated on December 20, 2022.