
The Day the Golden Gate Bridge Flattened (2012) - richardhod
https://www.mercurynews.com/2012/05/23/the-day-the-golden-gate-bridge-flattened/
======
mistrial9
The day was clear, the crowds were large; the bridge was full with a festive
feel. No one wanted to be the first to leave, Soon there was no retreat... As
more bodies pushed in from either side an unpleasant realization spread there
was no going back that day -- Golden Gate Bridge 50th Anniversary

~~~
DrScump
I was there. I spent the night before in Sausalito, and we came from the
north, reaching almost the middle before encountering the wall of people from
the SF side.

It was damn scary. People continued to crush in from both directions, and the
bridge swayed despite it not being particularly windy. People in midspan were
yelling in both directions for people to turn around. The trampling deaths at
the Who concert in Cincinnati were not yet forgotten.

Just when we felt in _serious_ trouble, people finally got the hint that they
weren't going to make it across, and they retreated.

------
CydeWeys
The crowd control issues definitely sound like a good reason to not repeat
this. Or at least not without making each side of the bridge one-way for
pedestrian traffic and controlling the maximum number of people allowed on the
bridge at each time.

------
seandougall
The bridge’s advertised maximum downward deflection is 10.8 feet. Unless
that’s an incredibly blatant lie, I don’t see how a deflection of 7 feet would
almost break the bridge.

Edit: the article does go on to acknowledge that, after the point where I’d
originally stopped reading out of exasperation with the typical BANG
clickbait.

~~~
the_seraphim
The bridge was designed with a maximum deflection of 16 feet vertically and 27
feet horizontally.

------
matthewcanty
Post-9/11 world in 1987?

~~~
jrace
>And bridge officials insist that the reason the bridge district isn’t
permitting pedestrians to swarm over the Golden Gate for the 75th anniversary
Sunday has nothing to do with the threat of collapse and everything to do with
the threats of overcrowding and terrorism in a post-9/11 world.

