Walnut Street Bridge collapse, Harrisburg PA 1996
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ค. 2011
- Update 2020: WHTM has posted a retrospective at www.abc27.com/news/local/harr.... When I discovered this I planned to take this video down, but then I noticed they didn't include all the footage. Please visit their page too.
On January 22, 1996, sections of the Walnut Street Bridge in Harrisburg, PA are carried away by flood waters and ice floes after the North American Blizzard of 1996 and subsequent thaw and rain. It crumples under the Market Street Bridge (3:05), the next bridge downstream in the Susquehanna.
This video appears to have been shot from around 27 Cumberland Rd, Lemoyne, PA 17043, on the West Shore, by my estimation. goo.gl/maps/VHJWw
I rode over that bridge hundreds of times as a child while living in Camp Hill. I loved the sound the metal grates made from the car tires and that you could see the rushing water through them. I now live in Berlin Germany and love the memories and mourn the iconic bridge.
1996, when there were still sincere acknowledgements for putting the effort into shooting a video.
Let me give you a hug. You seem to have a sad life.
nah, people still put this much effort into recording things that are happening in front of them all the time! Reason you don't see videos from 1996 where someone looks down with the camera and screams the moment anything happens is because back then, if you had a good camera, you probably knew how to use it. Now? When everyone has a camera in their pockets, chances are a massive majority of videos are going to be filmed by someone with "less than adequate videography experience".
Ironically also when people shot video for others to see and enjoy, and didn't care about making sure everyone knew exactly who shot the video.
@@Zildawolf well said
@@austinmccoy9743 accurate
I'm a teen living in central PA. It's cool to see a news story that my parents or grandparents may have watched when it was new
You know this old when you hear VCR.
You know your old when people refer to vcr as being old.
@@ageckomiller You really know you're old when you remember that this was as good as video got with a non-pro cam and a VCR. Or when the VCR didn't even exist!
@@P_RO_
Beta max.
@@ageckomiller Hey I see you on Webull posting in Zomedica comments lol!!!!
Hell I was 10 yrs old watching this from negley park because I'm originally from wormleysburg pennsylvania
Ill never forgrt when that happened. Thats so funny how at the end Rick Wagner mentions a fund being established for the restoration of the bridge and 18 years later it still stands with a huge portion missing.
Nick Brodie - In the pocket of politicians. What else is new? Definitely didn’t go to PDOT as PA roads suck. The only DOT that makes VA’s look good.
24 years later and it's still just sitting there with a big chunk missing. Maybe they're hoping another big snowstorm will get rid of the rest of it?
@@weltonvillegal6258 It's not a Penndot issue... It's a City issue, there's been debate about what town is responsible for getting it fixed, whether it's Harrisburg or Wormleysburg.
I'll bet every dime went into some politicians pocket or backyard
minmelethuireb2 (Rebekah) That's so dangerous. Not to mention unsightly. I knew PENNDOT was bad but jeez that's just criminal
Ran across that bridge at the end of the Harrisburg Marathon in 94.
Blizzard of 96. I remember this, was outta school for like 2 weeks straight.
sugarndspice07, lucky I have heard tales but wasn't born yet! Not even a thought yet.
Were you born as a result of that blizzard?
only miss one day of work
Blizzard of '93 was worse for me. I was struck at home for a week before the county came to plow my family out. And was out of school for it seems like 2 weeks....
I was a junior at John Harris, snow up to my knees❄❄❄
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this footage. I was 16 at the time. I’m reminded about this every time I drive across the river. I always wondered why they didn’t repair the bridge.
It is a treat to see Rick Wagner again. He is definitely missed. Alicia Richards is still at the news desk after all these years. Still have a copy of this on a VCR tape, not sure where it got to. LOL
I grew up in Steelton and loved walking on the bridge as a little kid when we would go to City Island for Senators games. I was heartbroken as an 8 year old and still am to this day.
Don't burn your bridges, crush them with ice!
I'll never forget that year. I live on a farm in Lebanon County and we were off school for 2 weeks straight.
We were snowed in with our lane drifted shut by several feet of snow. I remember a teacher at school yelling at me for not being at school for almost an entire additional week because of our lane kept drifting shut and being snowed in.
My brothers and I had a massive snow pile in the driveway and we would get up to the top and push each other off.
i played outside for so long my mom literally had to drag me in kicking and screaming. my cuffs were glued to my wrists with ice lol
I do remember all the private plow guys were pulled in to do the streets. After about 3 days we got together with other neighbors to start digging our shared drive out.
Jmmn
Lf
That was a crazy winter. I had so many days off school.
That was the winter that my dad went and bought a 5 ft snowblower for the the 3 point hitch on our Massey Ferguson utility Tractor. That snowblower weighed 600 lbs and the back of his Toyota 4x4 pickup was sagging like all hell with it in the back when he came home from the Tractor dealership. He picked it off the truck with the front end loader after we chained up the tires. He put the Massey 1020 in 4x4 and went out for hours clearing snow.
The power of the ice to support the bridge, and float it down river is amazing. Never underestimate Mother Nature.
What's just as stunning is how high the river is. It usually isn't near that high.
Random Traveler: True, in some places the Susquehanna is only three feet deep.
@@wrightflyer7855 I believe one of those places is Columbia / Wrightsville.
@@randomtraveler9854 Haven't been to Harrisburg in many years but I'm sure you're correct. I especially enjoyed the annual art festival when I lived there, and also open mic poetry in the Midstate. Do you remember when the "Pride Of the Susquehanna" sank, possibly on its maiden voyage?
@@wrightflyer7855 No I'm sorry I don't remember the Pride of the Susquehanna sinking. Yes the Harrisburg area has lots of great annual events. By the way Columbia and Wrightsville are the Lancaster County/York County border, not Harrisburg.
@@randomtraveler9854 OK, thanks. I've spent some time exploring the covered bridges in Lancaster County, the PRR Railroad Museum and Strasburg Railroad, and my ex brother in law owned two Schwinn shops in York. I do miss that part of the country but don't miss the winters at all.
as a local resident, i can still remember this day, gives me chills still thinking about this.
Why? WOW! you're a soy!
Wow, not sure where I got 2001 from. Especially since I had 1996 in the title. Thanks for the correction.
I remember that footage. I lived in central PA at the time. Luckily no one wasn’t on that bridge when it happened. Yikes 😬😬
I don't think luck played a part, obviously that bridge, and the Market Street Bridge were closed by Emergency Managment. I'm also sure, that like today, there were a lot of pi*sed off people that disagreed that it was enforced.
"We're just in time for it" that's classic!!
The power of ice on the move. Crushed steel like like its nothing. Now you have an idea how much stress there is on bridge peirs especially in the great lakes where the ice can be much thicker.
I live on the Delaware & in years past we've had ice dams break. The noise is what always gets me. So loud & moving fast.
Ron Stone5 Lambertville NJ
Ron Stone5 No, sorry you're about 2hrs north of me. 100 miles. My son loves going up to PJ, is really into RR. I went years ago to go tubing on the river. Beautiful area & had lots of fun. My cousin lived in Milford PA for a bit. Used to do her shopping in PJ.
Ron Stone5 Sorry about that. I always commuted. Just got used to it.
I feel like that other bridge never liked the bridged that collapsed and thats why it ate it.
nom nom nom!
They still havent fixed that bridge since. I know the part of the Walnut Street bridge from City Island to downtown Harrisburg is still intact and hopefully stays that way. I have walked across the Walnut Street bridge numerous times and felt safe doing so.
In Maryland, there was 2 feet of snow one night, and early the next morning there was bare grass and no snow except for a few piles.
I lived about 50 miles East in Reading during the massive snowstorm that led to this bridge collapse. It was memorable, to put it mildly!
I used to drive my motorcycle across the bridge when it was 2 lane traffic going east to west. I miss driving on bridges where I could look down and see the river.
I remember the tires singing on the metal grating on those green painted bridges. Now replaced with hideous concrete slabs that have no personality.
I don't remember much about that year being as I was nine, but I do remember seeing this on the news and being in absolute awe and shock that something that big could be tore apart.
Mr. Blachford: As an expert on engineering, I suppose you think you might have designed a better bridge? It lasted for 106 years, which is probably longer than you will survive.
The Rockville Bridge is still holding as well, despite being 112 years old.
Ed Price, Ya a bridge near me is 104 years old, search Nicholson bridge on google.
Actually, if you just look at the video, you can see the failed Walnut Street Bridge impacting the slightly downstream Market Street bridge (which did not fail and thus must be considered a superior bridge design).
Ed Price I love it when people who have never built a triple decker club sandwich chime in with engineering tips.....makes being a builder so much fun.
Mike Smith it's more art than science......
I remember this! I grew up in Wormleysburg and I watched this happen live.
Starting a trust fund to rebuild the bridge? Its been almost 20 years now, still no bridge! Wow. i wonder where all that money went?
It went to the govt Christmas party.
+1741clovis more like it went to mayor reeds pocket, just like the incinerator money.
Conflicts between the two counties prevented a bridge being built. Hbg didnt want to pay for the whole job and why should they there side wasn't effected
You know, democrats.
rosemary sellers.....I'm guessing the money went with Dauphin Deposit Bank when it closed!
What year was the original Walnut Street bridge, in Pittsburgh, PA. built?
First off that's Alicia Richards not Flora. I was 8 when this happened. I live not far from where this took place. The reason the river was so high is because the snow would melt and then freeze and it would snow again. All of the streams and creeks in the area fall into the river and the Susquehanna goes pretty far north too.
My brother was born the day this happened. Coincidence? I think not...
+Mike Rentschler lol
Mike Rentschler 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mike Rentschler
Did your brother get named Walnut? ;¬)
Ok that was funny. I needed that. Thanks
Watching an ice jam literally change the landscape is very humbling. I was right next to one that was tossing around van sized boulders, sounded like crunching styrofoam.
Restoration of the bridge...ha! 23 yrs later...2019..and remainder of bridge left to rot..meanwhile the various layers of government find new and interesting ways to piss away my hard earned money...and then come back and ask for more.
Exactly right. Hey did you hear about the one where property tax will be reduced when casinos go in?
You're exactly right save for the "asking" part. That would be more aptly described as them telling you that you are somehow at fault for their inability to manage their money forcing them take more from you.
Maybe they can build it with the rain tax!
Everybody's got to put a little bit into the kitty, well not everyone 😔
After the payoff that Wolf got last week maybe now they can fix it
Ran the marathon there in 94. The last mile was over that bridge. The steel deck was a little hard on the feet.
I remember this! I lived in Harrisburg and 16 at the time. I was completely FREAKED out because I had walked across this bridge a billion times and never really felt safe.
I was 16, too, in Mechanicsburg!
Hm, wonder how that fundraiser is going for the restoration...
Still waiting
Wow the first 14 seconds brought back memories.
I'm just glad that the cop was on the Market Street Bridge to keep those birds and the whole situation under control.
He's good he has doughnuts
Did they find the parts from that bridge in the river? And if so, how far away. Don’t mess with ice. A friend and I went riding our Honda ATC 110 & 90 down a creek in March. The water level was several feet below the ice in several places, with a big air gap. My friends ATC 90 went through and we had great trouble pulling it out. Plus he got soaked.
I rode across this bridge as a kid in a car many times. We called it the tickle bridge because it vibrated the floor of the car and tickled our feet. It wasn't a smooth surface. It was a metal grated surface. That was before it was closed to traffic after the 72 flood. I was living in Florida when the collapse happened.
I was in Harrisburg about 8 yrs ago and walked across the northern span of the bridge, didnt realize there even was a 2nd bridge till now. I was staying at the Hilton on N 2nd St.
Wow! I can't believe that nobody said "holy shit"! I would have!
you just did
Somebody cursed but it was edited out
One bridge visits the other one...
Harvester Forwarder & More - They were in love........
"Mom! We're just in time for it!!!" Someone should interview the kid!
Glad I could add this video to my file tape collection
Damn, people back in the 90s spoke with so much more energy and enthusiasm than we do, I miss those days so much!! #90'sKid
Shut the fuck up. This is the most asinine thing I've read all day.
I've lived 30 minutes away from Harrisburg my entire life and I never knew that that's what happened to that bridge until this morning when my mom told me the story.
It has never been rebuilt to this day and plans to build it are dead in the water
I wonder if this can be archived in high quality (For VHS at least), and obviously they censored the swearing. I kind of wish someone had been on Market Street filming from that angle.
I remember the blizzard of 96 in Baltimore, we were out of school for a while.
I grew up on 13th street in Harrisburg, I was only 5 when this occurred and I remember it as if it happened yesterday. That blizzard was crazy, my aunt and grandma lived on 2nd st so they came to stay with us for awhile I think bc of flooding . We watched this live on tv, it took years for me to even step an inch on any bridge.
Still waiting for the bridge to be “fixed”…..
I went to a HBG Senators baseball game in August 1995 (drove and parked at the ballpark) and remember seeing people walking from the West Shore on the WSB. If I only knew...
Does anyone have the pics / video taken by the guy standing on the bridge?
my family lived on the other side of the bridge. I never saw them again.
jim kelley
Lol
jim kelley omg that was funny
that's funny right there, I don't care who you are
jim kelley 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm still laughing at your comment as I type this. LOL LOL LOL
New to this area. Oh, so that's why that bridge looks like that. The ice flow on that river is pretty dramatic.
Same time a Conrail freight train was pushed off the tracks around Star Rock point just north of Safe Harbor Dam. I remember climbing all over the train cars that were still on the tracks while it was sitting there. I doubt I would be that bold to try that today anymore.
Thanks for showing me my areas history, wish they would have fixed it.
@GreatAether0 Thanks, I'll take your word for it -- Wikipedia didn't have the exact date.
the scary thing is, the river is getting iced up like that all over again, and rising too
That was amazing, considering the entire trestle Bridge moved parallel, too the Market Street concrete Bridge, it looks like to me that was still riding on its pylons. Wow good camera work.
Every time I visit City Island I see dozens of people walking and biking the Eastern Span and then see the remains of the forgotten Western Span and think "gee how can this be the same bridge"?
The Susquehanna River was angry and dangerous that day in 1972, my friends. The Army Core of Engineers had a scope on it and told me it was gonna go at any time. I waited and watched as logs hit the bridge expecting it to go. Then one long log lodged lengthwise along it and people gasped. The bridge quivered. It was then I dove in and struggled for hours to dislodge it. As I dragged it ashore near Market Street Bridge, the engineer approached me, shook my hand and said, "Have yu any idea what kind of log you dragged in?". I said "No." He said, "A...Lincoln Log."
Well, the first three sentences were true. I missed this one.
DANG. It was like watching a recycler feed an old car to one of those big rotary crusher/shredder things, when the remains went under Market Street Bridge
Wow I haven’t seen those two news casters in years
Where can I donate?
Just give me your SS # , credit card number and bank number and I'll arrange everything. Trust me.
I worked at a restaurant for Donnie Carter and looked at that bridge almost every day. Wished PA would rebuild it.
I love the birds @'03:34 'Guys, come check this madness out!' 😂
That Market Street bridge must be a tough one.
I remember this like it happened yesterday . Though I don’t recall what happened to Rick Wagner ? 🤔
I remember this. Had a 6 foot snowman in the yard.
My senior year of HS. All that snow and ice and then it warmed up to the 60s
I remember that winter, conewingo dam was jammed with ice. That was a crazy, cold winter
Nice
I DROVE BY THAT A MILLION TIMES!! I WAS BORN IN PA AND TODAY I PASSED IT! MY MOM USED TO WALK ON THAT!! IT'S SOOO COOL!
I believe that is the mighty Susquehanna . Not a small river.
The Susquehanna river is the northeast's answer to the northwest's Columbia River. They're both sites to behold, but not to be messed with.
"There's no hurry, this is slow motion you know."
What a damn shame. Another beautiful piece of history needlessly destroyed. The fact that it lasted over 100 years should be testament to how poorly bridges are built today with a mere lifespan of 25 years.
Agreed
it was not taken down by humens
I’m from Scranton pa And this is the perfect example of a Pennsylvania accent I try to explain to people how it sounds and here it is. Every sentence sounds like a question lol it’s like a mix between Canadian and New Yorker
Walnut Street bridge collapse, and we have Harrisburg's best and brightest on the scene!
Was the bridge in service at tbe time?
It was used as part of a pedestrian/bike trail. It used to carry cars, but was closed to motor traffic about 2 decades prior to the collapse. Thankfully, no one was on the bridge at the time.
Fed up of being far from its love one, the old steel truss bridge took a walk and join its concrete love, hug it. Sadly its old hearth fail and it collapse apart. It was brief but its dream was fulfilled...
I remember watching part of this on the news at my parents house in Allentown
I was living in Bucks Co. but don't remember this at all
just drove past it today... it creeps me out just seeing the remainder of the bridge left to sit
Thats PA for you. The whole state is old and crumbling away.
This gives a whole different meaning to "a bird's eyes view." Check out how BOLD the pigeons were when Walnut Bridge hit Market Bridge at the end. A few even flew right in front of it, landing on Mkt St Bridge to get a better view!
I remember watching this when I was 9 years old.
dang i remember watching this on the news i was a little kid
@GreatAether0 i see. i didn't realize there was a wikipedia page for it lol
I was at work at the g-man riverside in wormleysburg when we all heard a loud crunch. When we looked the bridge was being ripped apart by the ice. It was jan 22, 1996. I remember because That was the week we had 22 inches of snow. The river was solid ice 1 week before then it started thawing until this happened. I liveds right across the street from the g-man .
@ukyox2x i was 4 when this happened. they still haven't rebuilt it after all these years, so i honestly doubt they ever will.
I lived in Harrisburg on 29th from September 1989- February 1990.
Crazy stuff to see.
Oh my goodness.
Obviously the bridge was weakened by radiation from TMI.
"Ma, the bridge is running away."
How is it the river was that high during winter?
It rained buckets a week after getting dumped on by a blizzard.
I wonder where the other parts of the bridge went
I used to cross that bridge when I was stationed at N.C.A.D. in 1970.
In the comments it says this Bridge was 106 years old. So the walnut Street Bridge was built in 1880. The bridge was not designed for car's, trucks, or semi-truck. (They weren't invented yet.) They would of had a weight limit to cross the bridge. It was probably the strongest built bridge at that time.
The good news: the Market Street Bridge, which the Walnut Street Bridge crashed into, didn't fall apart.
the news "girl' knows it's 140 tons. she's a genius.
I never saw a bridge with such light truss work. Must have dated to circa 1900 or earlier.
It was built in 1890...