Structural Hubris: The Catastrophic Failure of the Quebec Bridge

In 1907, the Quebec Bridge was intended to be a masterpiece of cantilever engineering, the longest of its kind in the world. Instead, it became a tomb for 75 workers when the structure twisted and collapsed into the St. Lawrence River. The disaster was caused by a fundamental miscalculation of the bridge's own weight-an error that was ignored by the lead engineer, Theodore Cooper, due to professio...