Dividing Impact: The Tasman Bridge Collapse
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
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The Tasman Bridge Disaster & Sinking of MV Lake Illawarra on January 5, 1975 was devastating for the city of Hobart, Tasmania in Australia. The collapse divided the community physically and revealed the urgency for a safer way to cross the River Derwent.
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SPECIAL THANKS to Tassie TV!: • Tasman Bridge Collapse...
▶Timestamps:
00:00 Tasman Bridge Disaster Overview
00:44 Hobart's First Attempt to Bridge The Mouth of The River Derwent
03:31 The Tasman Bridge Goes from Concept to Reality | Replaces Hobart Floating Bridge
05:14 The Bulk Carrier MV Lake Illawarra
06:51 Fog, Mist and Strong River Currents Pose a Challenge on Sunday Evening January 5, 1975
10:45 Survivors, Rescue and Immediate Aftermath
12:50 Victim Recovery - Ferries Reinstated - A City Divided
14:02 Fate of MV Lake Illawarra - Tasman Bridge Reconstruction - New Safety Procedures
15:43 The Role of Captain Boleslaw Pelc & Crew After Investigations
17:23 In Memoriam...
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▶ A B O U T
Hey, I'm Sam! Child of the 80s turned Parent, Traveler, & Bumbling/Stumbling Nostalgic, Sentimental Creator. With a background in Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Industrial Robotics and a passion for Workplace Safety... half the time I know about 50% what I'm doing!
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Thanks for covering this have you heard of the Westgate Bridge Disaster,
West Gate Bridge Collapse: 40 Years On th-cam.com/video/li8SLxytnzA/w-d-xo.html
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I know its only words, but I mean it when I say that you have a fantastic tone and speed of narration. Enough to be able to relax and take in not only the information, but a small sense of what it was like to experience these situations. very immersive.
Should be mentioned that it is being looked into to remove the ship or atleast the zinc ore cargo due to risk of poisoning the Derwent river.
Going to sort out a donation soon, the level of work in your videos is above and beyond many other videos, good in their own right but your production quality is superb.
I feel like 20years ago it went without saying but in the current climate it deserves to be pointed out that; the sober presentation style, and omission of flashy animations or dramatic music when discussing loss of life is appreciated. It shows respect and decorum. I only became conscious of this, after watching cable news for the first time in ages recently. You are the perfect person to be sponsored by ground news. Thank you for another high quality video.
Yeah, this is why I don't watch TV documentaries (let alone news) anymore. TH-camrs often do better research and don't do over-the-top baloney.
Edit to add: I feel like you'd have to go back more like 30 years to get to a time where news wasn't heading down the hyperpartisan route, though it was nothing like it is now.
The ‘title credit’ is literally WHISPERED ….“brickimmortar”… I thought it was silly at first, grew to love it, and now realize that it is the perfect way to begin the telling of any tragic tale, frequently centered around the catastrophic failure of infrastructure. Respect and decorum indeed; the antithesis of huckster talking heads presenting 30 second snippets of the corporate line between commercial breaks.
👍
Good comments all... am researching sponsor & may pull the trigger.
I heartily agree. When I watch the news I'm enlightened and entertained by the actual news, I don't require bells, whistles, a musical score nor naked legs. I appreciate the news.
Between this and the Sunshine Skyway disaster, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re driving on a bridge and you see someone trying to flag you down, you STOP.
Edit: Dammit, not again!
Honestly, if you ever see someone trying to flag you down, it's probably best to slow way down.
... It's unlikely, but if they DO try to rob you, hit them and drive to a police station. You're driving the weapon.
@@grmpEqweer fair point, I hadn’t thought of that.
I've seen "The Hitcher". Now I've seen this. If I see someone flagging me down, I'm hitting reverse.
But they all DID stop. Just 100m beyond ( or below) the edge of the bridge. At least they avoided being robbed.
@@grmpEqweer okay if someone is flagging me down, I will hit them and the then stop
My grandfather drove over the Tasman Bridge a week before this accident. He used to tell the story a lot. He left Tasmania the day before, he was only in town to visit a friend and lived in New South Wales, but he loved that story. He also drove taxis during the Newcastle earthquake. We used to joke he doomed things by driving upon it.
@A Z I hear you. My family was supposed to go camping in a supposedly safe area the weekend Mt St Helens erupted. Pretty sure I wouldn't be here if my little brother hadn't had an ear infection that made driving through the mountains a really bad idea. I only barely remember that eruption (oddly, I remember subsequent ones much better), but I still think about it over 40 years on.
I felt the Newcastle earthquake - I was on the Central Coast. In the pre-internet era we slowly discovered what happened.
@A Z Are you a born again Christian?
@@silmarian Are you a born again Christian? Have you thought about how fortunate you were to not die that day?
Remember, 'And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment'. If you die in your sins, you will get what you are owed, eternal death. But, "to the one that does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." Forgiveness is found only in Christ. Throw yourself upon the mercy of the judge. Please look more into the True Gospel.
@@joev2223 You taking their story and trying to put a religious spin on it just spits in the face of not only their luck, but the fates of the many victims of the stories. go biblethump your way book-first into a woodchipper, and see if you come out a born-again Christian.
I can only imagine how absolutely terrifying it would be to be driving over a bridge and suddenly plummeting into the water below. i hope that the victims rest in peace, and the families of said victims have found some form of solace afterwards.
No kidding. What a terrible terrible way to go.
At the same time, there are those from the two vehicles that kept standing on the bridge by mere inches. How lucky they were!
Can you imagine being one of the crew men trapped in the engine room of a sinking ship unable to get out, clawing desperately for your life and taking minutes to die. Absolutely terrifying!
@@Sugarsail1 Airbags would have helped what?
Great topic. I lived in Hobart from 1964-1999 and can remember the sonic boom of when the bridge went down that night. It was colossal.
Hobart was a very small, quiet city back in those days and it was a massive shock for something like that to happen there.
I was 12 years old when it went down, I always remember the story of the elderly man that lived at North Hobart who had convinced his son and daughter-in-law to stay for an extra pot of tea before leaving to drive home across the bridge. They were found at the bottom of the river holding hands while their car was decimated around them. The poor old man never forgave himself.
Frank Manley, the man who's green 1974 GTS Monaro was hanging off the bridge is still alive, 94 years old this year and still resides on the Eastern Shore, his earlier career as a racing driver no doubt saved his life in responding to the crisis unfolding at the time.
The car is in the museum in Launceston, he still owns it, his wife passed away a few years ago.
Murray Ling, the owner of the white Holden stationwagon hanging off the bridge died in the mid 1980s.
PS: you are also correct that there were no marker buoys in the shipping channel for ships heading too and from Nyrstar (the old EZ Company), only lights are on the bridge, that is still the case.
I was not quite 12 and visiting Australia with my family when this happened. We’d spent about 2 weeks in Perth visiting my mom’s childhood friend who married an Aussie professor on sabbatical in the US when she and Mom were at the university together. Then we spent another two weeks or so traveling the continent and the last couple traveling NZ.
So I was the one who got the Christmas Day newspaper with the headline “Cyclone Tracy Destroys Darwin” off the porch and then 12 days later saw this headline on a Melbourne newspaper. It was a sad couple of weeks, news wise.
It is shocking to me that there are still no buoys. That would definitely help with navigation through there.
@@j.f.e.productions4098 I'm not sure the exact reason as to why they haven't, I do know that to this day if a large ship passes beneath, all traffic is stopped until it is through. The bridge is also the biggest suicide spot in Tasmania, while it's not possible to quantify numbers on exactly how many have died (as numbers are never released to discourage the practice) one senior police officer I know down there told me only recently that there are approximately 8-10 deaths a year and the numbers have risen further since the impacts of Covid have wrought havoc on mental health and other associated issues. The cost of putting a simple cage around the pedestrian lanes on either side are quite astronomical due to load-bearing issues supposedly.
Wow, those stories are incredible. I often watch these kinds of videos and find that I'm very curious of the "where are they now?" type thing. We always get the story- like the events occurred in a vacuum, never any follow-up in terms of what happened to who, the lasting effects of the incident on individuals and communities and humanity. Thank you for taking the time to fill us in. I really do appreciate it. I just wanted to hurry up and say that before some edgy kid answers the burning desire to speak for literally everyone, gives in to that uncontrollable impulse to proudly- and rudely- proclaim that "Nobody cares."
I do.
@@poutinedream5066 same here. ✅
My mother was a nurse. She was caring for Dr. Jones’ wife. They never told her what happened to him, she wasn’t well enough to understand and the distress would have been cruel, so soon before her own passing.
My mother remembered the doctor as a kind man. Soon after she had to be airlifted to hospital to have my brother, something she hated as she had a fear of small aircraft but my brother arrived safely though it was a tough time for her.
A typically pragmatic Australian response to the situation, "Stuff reverse, just bloody well get out!" Although I live in New South Wales I remember this well because it was all over the news. The two vehicles hanging over the edge gave me nightmares. This could have been so much worse had it happened during the peak hour rush. Not that that's much consolation to those who lost their lives.
Lol I'm glad someone translated that. Thank you.
I live only a couple miles from a river bridge, it's fairly short as bridges go, but very steep. I HATE driving across it because I always feel like I'm going to reach the peak and the other side will be gone. The photo of the cars hanging over with their lights on made me feel faint. So many nightmares about that.
The Monaro is still around, in fact there's a video on it on TH-cam, actually has interviews with the 2 people that were in it
@@notablynova4247 Interesting that it was two Holdens (EK and HQ) hanging off the edge. And, now, either of them in good nick would be worth ridiculous amounts of money. Especially the Monaro because of its history.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing when the picture came up.
This is a fantastic channel. As a young adult, I lamented the loss of TV programming like this on the history channel and other cable networks. Sadly, they now offer mostly reality shows. Thank goodness for content creators like Brick Immortar. Great work!
I worked in the steel industry for 10 years making high stress concrete anchors for bridges, carpark support posts and buildings in earthquake zones . I really appreciate all the work put in and the respect show to the people lost in these stories. Watching these I find myself trying to remember all the little mistakes made so I can pass them on to my co-workers so the mistake arn't repeated. I always found learning about mishaps in other steel plants really valuable because these stories were shared around all the workers to help protect each other from accidents down the road. Keep up the great work Love and Respect
Passing on mistakes others have made is how we learn... or if we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it!
That ad transition was so smooth i didn't notice until you said Ground News
Same here, best ad so far on TH-cam.
My grandfather was a civil engineer involved in the design and construction of the Bowen Bridge after this disaster. At the time he lived with his family on the Eastern shore and my mum remembers the collapse of the Tasman Bridge and subsequently the ferries and the floating bridge very well.
Fun fact: most of us Hobartians refer to the Tasman bridge as simply "the bridge" since it's still the biggest, most used and most convenient bridge in the city. Perhaps ironically they're now bringing back the ferries as the bridge and the city in general are getting far too congested with traffic.
I recall becoming aware of this incident on my first vessel which, unnervingly, was on the same run as the Lake Illawarra. I was on the bridge and we were waiting for the pilot, I was having a look at the chart of the bridge a dark and quiet night. I noticed on the chart the dotted outline of a wreck under the bridge. It wasn't until after we were alongside at Risdon that my googling uncovered the Tasmanian bridge disaster. I believe there is recent footage of the wreck available on the internet from the Australian Navy that did a wreck inspection sometime after 2012. Adding to the story from a maritime angle there is a very strict "Point of no return" abeam millers point in which its required to abort the passage if not lined up with the navigation span. The strong winds from mount Wellington and the very fast tidal flow which sometimes run's across the face of the bridge makes the approach from both sides tricky. I was on 3 Australian ships that frequented Hobart/Port Pirie and only needed to use the PNR once, owing to the professionalism of the Marine Pilots in Hobart. Obviously, they take the transit incredibly seriously. Thanks for the fantastic video, look forward to the next one.
Hah, former Iron Sturt deck cadet here :) I remember wondering about the assymtry of the piers and seeing the wreck on the chart, as well. My Dad was the resident doctor on duty at the Royal Hobart at the time of the accident, and went out on a police launch to the ship on the night. He also later took the blood alcohol reading of the Illawarra's master at the hospital.
I also heard from a Hobart harbour pilot (during pilotage inbound) that they have it on record that the Illawarra's master requested a pilot, but was basically told by the owners "You have an exemption - use it."
Thank you for adding this. Born and raised South of Hobart, but a bit before my time. My mother worked in the city for Ansett Airlines. Basically cut off the Eastern Shore from Hobart. It was unbelievable. We have a photo of the night the bridge went down in our lounge room. I just shared your video to the Tasmanian history page.
Was coming to comment about the eastern shore too. It ended up having a positive impact on the region was a bizarre thing, bc the eastern shore could no longer economically rely on Hobart.
Clarence, Rosny and Bellerive are doctor's suburbs now: the main road of Clarence is mostly dentists offices, when it used to be analagous to something like Sorell today prior to the collapse. Eastlands would never have been built, Bellerive Oval would never have reached the scale it is today as a national sporting venue: hugely changed Hobart's socioeconomics and geography
oh wow, Ansett Airlines... they were amazing
As a side note to this tragedy during the years it took to repair the bridge a flourishing ferry service emerged. Such was the demand a company that built high speed aluminium catamaran car ferries was formed. Long after the bridge was repaired the company found international markets for its products in the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and the US Navy. That company is Austal and they are still building ships. They also have shipyards in the US. All because a ship ran into a bridge.
I have literally never been so early to something in my life
😆
Grew up and have lived in Hobart my entire life, everybody has a story tied to the bridge if they've lived here long enough.
My grandparents and Mum were driving on the bridge a minute or two before it collapsed to take my mum and uncle to my great grandnan's place in Bellerive when they were both very little. They had just gotten off the ramp onto the highway to Rosny and the lights went out on the bridge behind them, and both of my grandparents wondered what happened.
They got to my grandnan's place and she was like "thank god you're safe" and they were quite confused about the whole thing. They thought it was just a blackout on the northern side (very common in those days, Tasmania was quite underdeveloped at the time).
If they'd left two minutes earlier they could have ended up in the water: chilling thought sufficed to say
I watched this video right when it was uploaded and kind of forgot about it, until I was visiting Hobart a year later (from Germany) and the tourist ship I was on was going under the Tasman bridge when all of a sudden I remembered this video and all the infos came back to me.
It was a really sobering moment..thanks so much for making such great videos and for creating a very memorable moment for me!
My unit 35 Water Transport Sqn of the Australian Army was tasked with going to Hobart and providing logistical support. We had 2 LCM8 there to provide ferry service for State services such as fire brigade and ambulance.
Thanks for your service. Hopefully you weren’t also required in Darwin 12 days earlier 🙁
I was there as a kid not long after the event and still remember gawping out of the window of our car at the collapsed bridge section while we drove across this amazing temporary floating bridge that the army corps of engineering had put together to keep the suburbs of Hobart linked. Great work! You should also have a look at the Westgate bridge collapse in Melbourne.
Thanks for covering this of my home country. While I don't live in the state of Tasmania but Melbourne, Victoria, I have driven over the new bridge a number of times and have been on a Ferry that went under it and the new spans were noticeable from the water. As a kid at the time it was an awful tragedy, probably only out done by the Granville train disaster and Westgate Bridge collapses. Cheers mate.
I was with my family visiting a childhood friend of Mom’s in Perth and then touring in Australia when this happened. I think we actually were in Melbourne when this happened. Between this incident and the cyclone destroying Darwin on Christmas Day, it was a sad couple of weeks in the news.
Just asked Brick lmmortar to cover the West gate Bridge Tragedy, if he does l give him a slab of VB.
@@xr6lad Lived in Melbourne and Victoria my whole life and was unaware of the Westgate bridge collapse?
I hope he ends up doing a video on it.
My grandparents live on the road that the Tasman bridge feeds off to. My dad remembers hearing the collision and feeling the ground shake. Nowadays crossing that bridge is a breeze. My dad's family is all from Hobart and my mum's family lived there for around a decade. I used to have nightmares about the people driving off the bridge when I was a child. I love the overhead footage of Hobart's tiny Central Business District. Thanks for covering this story BI. It feels far too surreal to listen to this being retold with all of the facts and not by my direct family.
As a graduate engineer I worked on the design and then on site at the Tasman Bridge Restoration and Widening. As well as rebuilding the spans, the bridge was widened at the same time from four to five lanes with a central lane that reversed direction for the moring and evening peak. This required strengthing of all spans. I remember reviewing the original design report and one of the analyses was the dynamics of a falling span if one of the non-navigation piers was lost, to see its tragectory did not hit the next column and cause a domino collapse of the whole bridge. It would been better not put to the test but it worked.
One thing not mentioned was the temporary Bailey bridge built with the assistance of the Army Engineering Corp near the site of the subsequent Bowen Bridge, becuase ferries and army landing craft for abulances and emergency vehicles was not sufficient.
My father was sent to Hobart by Maunsell's to assist in the reconstruction. He tells stories of how they mapped the debris below the bridge to develop the plan to repair the bridge. The water was very cold and visibility almost non existent on the floor. He sat on the barge marking positions and shapes of debris on a chart as data was relayed to the surface by the diving team. No fly on fly out in those days, we didn't see much of him for a long time.
The amount of work you put into these videos is insane. The research and video editing is admirable. Thank you.
Watched this video Sunday.. then today… wow. Just wow.
This and Cyclone Tracy, my first seven months of life (in Australia) was eventful. Nowhere near either, thankfully. Though my grandfather was working around 500 yards from where the span of the West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction in 1970, killing 35.
I was seven when this happened. Still remember it clearly. We had family on both shores, but lived on the western shore. Travelling down to Bridgewater to cross the Derwent was a very long trip. We didn't see much of the family over those years the bridge was down.
I can't imagine being in one of those cars hanging off of that bridge! I get chills thinking about it! I'm so terribly afraid of cars and water that I would definitely have a heart attack! OMG that's terrifying! That poor family of that Dr.... So sad. Every video Sam does leaves me wrecked for a week😞. Great video! Just so tragic. Well done
Do Sir John Spicer's remarks in defense of the captain (16:29) strike anyone else as ever so slightly bizarre, or is it just me? That first sentence especially feels a bit like saying that apart from the unpleasantness involving President Lincoln's party, the play passed without incident.
That's precisely the analogy that occurred to me as I was listening.
A concise yet surprisingly comprehensive presentation - really nice work.
P.S. The final 3 letters of ‘Tasman’ are usually pronounced as if the ‘a’ is absent, like Tasmn, or even tasmin or tasmahn, but not as the word ‘man’ (with the hard ‘a’).
I like it tho, it sounds like a superhero.
@@Xenon3d True! I hadn’t thought of it that way.
It grates every time he says it - Taasmaan. Short vowels = Tazmin.
@@Xenon3d It's annoying
I always thought it was pronounced with both "a"s absent? Tsmn. Maybe even leave the "T" out as well?
I love the context you give before, the detail of the actual scenario during the tragedy and often the action steps taken after to prevent in the future.
I learn so much each video. I feel you honor those lost. Just wanted to say well done.
While infrequent in upload it sure makes up for it with amazing content. Great work as always.
One of the best channels on TH-cam. Always surprised when I see you don’t have Atleast 1M subscribers. Thanks for your efforts on your videos. Never goes unnoticed.
This is one of my favorite engineering channels by far. Excellent presentation, great video editing, and it’s clear you did your research.
The Monaro GTS is a classic Aussie car, but I'd hate to be in one hurtling towards a fallen bridge span at highway speed. Big and heavy with comparatively skinny tyres and weak brakes compared to modern vehicles, no fancy ABS or regenerative braking systems... scary!
I believe the HQ Monaro is still owned by the family and is in a museum down that way
@@TheTruckdriver999 in launceston, at one that specialises in cars
@@TheTruckdriver999 @Trixie Andrews, cool to know, thank you both. Cheers from Sydney.
The wagon is actually an EK, not FB. The EK had the chrome trim running the length of the car. The FB had a contrasting flash running along the rear half.
"Look at me comment" with bizarre references to regenerative braking system (nothing to do with braking effectiveness) and ABS (which is essentially designed to prevent yaw).
Speaking of Australian bridge collapses, u should do the westgate bridge collapse next
Gosh! This is one of my favourite bridges to drive, but I had no idea of this tragedy in its history. I’m from Brisbane but adore Hobart and visit regularly. I love the Tasman bridge because of the gorgeous views of the city and river it provides. It’s always exciting to cross on the drive in to the city from the airport. Thanks for this video, really respectfully presented.
My family and I were in Australia at the time visiting a childhood friend of Mom’s and then touring the country. Just 11 days earlier, on Christmas Day, the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory had been destroyed by a cyclone. I was the one who brought the paper in from the porch. Two big disasters in only a week and a half meant that headlines in Aussie newspapers were pretty sad for a while.
My nephew works on a pilot boat in Houston Bay and is working towards his pilot license/certification. It’s a shame that it took this kind of incident and loss of life to finally take this important task out of the hands of ship captains who are SEAfarers and into the hands of harbor pilots who know the harbors/waterways better. It’s literally their profession to move ships within bays, harbors and river ways from the sea.
I suggested this topic a few months ago on one of your other bridge collapse vids so i was happy to see this today. Great work as always.
I've followed this channel for some time now and it was oddly jarring to see something so local featured and covered in such depth and detail. I live in Melbourne now, but I used to live in Tasmania and still have a lot of friends in Hobart. Every time I've visited, someone has made mention of the bridge collapse and I have seen the well known photographs of the cars teetering over the edge but I don't think anyone ever really conveyed the extent of the disaster like this, not just the loss of life but the very serious repercussions of the city being severed down the middle like that for MONTHS. I can't imagine how they coped with the hospital on only one side of the river, that surely would have resulted in further preventable deaths.
Hobartians are still pissed off every time a ship goes under the bridge when all traffic is stopped. I still hate crossing west to east. The disaster fundamentally changed Hobart - arguably accelerating the growth of the eastern suburbs/Sorell/Midway Point. It's probably pertinent to note that there were several competing designs for the bridge, one of which was a suspension bridge which would have circumvented the need for a navigation span but it was considered too expensive. That cost would have been significantly lower than the current Tasman Bridge and the repair. Also when test drillings were conducted for the Tasman, the bedrock on the eastern side of the river proved to be considerably deeper than the western side, hence the piles on that side are 'splayed' outwards into the silt instead.
Tasmania also did not have a steel industry at the time, to make a suspension bridge viable. However it had a concrete industry, so a concrete bridge was built.
I've visited Hobart, and while there I sat on a park bench with the bridge in full view. This is the first I've heard that the bridge I had seen was once in such a state. Thanks for another terrific video.
Just found your channel a couple weeks ago when I watched the Ranger oil platform disaster and was hooked immediately. I really enjoy the depth of your investigations into these tragic events. I downloaded the app from your link and look forward to seeing what Ground News has to offer. Thanks.
The actual Monaro that was dangling on the edge of the bridge was for sale about 2 years back. Photos, clippings, providence all went with the sale.
Awesome ad transition, didn't notice until the end when you said ground news and it being free. Best on TH-cam so far. Well done... And the only ad I intend to follow up on.
Very good video production. Thank you.
I wouldn't mind seeing you do a video on the Granville rail accident. Out of all the rail incident reports I've read through it was interesting hearing about things I've never heard about before
I´ll add my appreciation of your calm style without flashy transitions or shaky camera. Great presentation, subscribed.
Great Video!! I think I mentioned the similarities between the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and the Tasman Bridge in the Sunshine Skyway Collapse video.
I was very impressed with your research as I didn't know Hobart had a floating bridge previously. I know floating bridges can be plagued with troubles especially in waters prone to movement. Brisbane had a floating walkway for many years that was constantly in need of repair. It was designed to move with the tide and with the constant river traffic that generated waves but was basically a money pit for the local authorities. Constant repair was required until January 2011 when, during a flood event an 800m section of walkway broke free and floated down river narrowly missing the Gateway Bridge. I was actually there to witness the tearing metal and concrete as it broke free. It was much louder than you'd think.
It blows my mind how often people in these stories drive right by someone waving their arms to stop or despite obvious trouble up ahead.
Pay attention or play bridge with the fishes 🐟
I'm not surprised seeing how many jerks are on the road. It's all about them and where they need to go. Everyone else is "in the way".
That was an excellent, clear, concise overview. Many thanks from this Hobart resident.
The names of the deceased were:
Crewman.
Clarence Maddigan (52) - Newcastle, NSW.
Angus Campbell (62) - Newcastle, NSW.
Arthur Robinson (82) - Newcastle, NSW.
Louis Mendizabal (54) - Mulgrave, VIC.
Graham Kemp (28) - Adelaide, SA.
Thomas Sheridan (50)
Reginald Turner (60)
Motorists:
Robert Rezek (24) - Bellerive, TAS.
Dr Thomas Jones (46) - Bellerive, TAS.
Joyce Stokoe (60) - Geilston Bay, TAS.
Pamela Sward (26) - Lauderdale, TAS.
Anthony Sward (27) - Lauderdale, TAS.
RIP to all
I was living in Lindisfarne on Hobart's eastern shore when this happened. Myself and two family members were heading home from a function in Sandy Bay and were on the bridge when the Lake Illawarra hit it. I still remember seeing the ship and wondering "what the hell is it doing so close to the shore". At this stage we could see the ship was heading for a section of the bridge directly in front of us.. I remember the entire eastern shore going black as the car shook. I looked behind us to see what happened and saw these headlights that looked like they were suspended in mid air and another pair disappearing out of sight. When we got home my father was standing in the living room with a pair of binoculars looking at the bridge. he turned when we ran into the room saying "There's a bloody hole in the bridge. What the hell happened?"
The sparks mentioned in the video were all the power cables being severed. At the time all the power for the eastern shore was fed by cables that ran through the bridge. I have very vivid memories of the next morning standing on the deck of the Bruny Island vehicle ferry looking at this huge gap in the bridge. . Total disbelief. Even now I still find myself holding my breath as I cross the repaired section of the bridge.
Was this before or after they moved the Bruny Island ferry terminal further south on the island? That old single deck ferry that used to run to the old terminal was quite something in rough weather.
@@PeterKelley Hi Peter, Thanks for the reply. It was the old single deck ferry. That first trip was cold, wet and uncomfortable. Everyone was herded on like cattle. I remember hoping like hell that I wouldn't fall over. The only other ferries at the time were mainly used for tourism and held around 150 - 200 passengers. There were only a few of them. To go via Bridgewater was around a two hour plus trip. The road from Risdon was a narrow winding dirt track. Hope this answers your question.
I recently found your channel and watched the prior video to this and I have been hooked. You do the best mini documentaries on these disasters and they are very interesting. The videos are just the right length too. Could I request you do The Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska? I remember that happening when I was a little kid and I have never taken a deep dive into it. I’m sure you could do an excellent video on it! Thanks
One of if not the best documentary page on TH-cam.
This reminds me of my local tragedy here in W. Arkansas.The I-40 bridge disaster was a bridge collapse that occurred southeast of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, United States at 7:45 a.m. on May 26, 2002. Freight barges being transported on the Arkansas River collided with a pier supporting the Interstate 40 road bridge crossing the river. The resulting failure of the supports caused a section of the bridge to collapse, killing 14 people and injuring another 11. The collision was determined to have resulted from a loss of consciousness on the part of the captain of the barges' towboat.
You do such a great job and your respect for those lost always impresses me. I'd never heard about this but being from Connecticut and vividly remembering the Mianus River Bridge collapse it gave me the chills thinking about those who went off the edge.
Man that old guy with the GT seemed so wholesome just from that one clip. Beautiful house too.
... It's amazing how people fail to realize bridges have collapsed and drive right off...but not really.
I see people drive into milder forms of danger every day without recognizing it.
Tasman Bridge! As a Hobart girl I have been hoping you might cover this :)
Great vid Brick Immortar. I like your narrative style.
RIP to those who lost their lives in this collapse.
You should do the "Tjörnbrokatastrofen" where a very similar thing hapened in southern sweden
+1 ! And Morandi bridge in Genoa
Well done as usual, sir. It would be interesting to know how the ship channel piers were guarded. The piers of the bridge that spans the entrance to Mayport Florida are utterly massive to deflect an off curse ship and there are some very large ships passing under that bridge. The channel is lined with buoys, with radar reflectors that glow like a full moon on a navigation radar.
This is so sad & tragic, the first I've heard of this event. It should be featured on "Engineering Disasters". I personally hate bridges & tunnels even more. Excellent factual reporting here, very well done. I will check out your other videos as this one just came up randomly to me.
On the topic of collapsed bridges, I can recommend you look up the Maracaibo bridge disaster of 1964, where an oil tanker, the Esso Maracaibo II, collided with said bridge, officially called General Urdaneta, costing the lives of 7 people, at the time the longest bridge to ever be involved in a fatal collision with a ship, where I think it still is.
I paused the video and signed up for Ground News immediately. Thanks!
it's really cool to see this covered!! my family was going to be crossing when the bridge collapsed but for once my grandmother insisting that it was too late in the evening to go visit family, so they weren't actually there but my mother did get a wonderful photo of the gap the morning afterwards. however I feel like there's a couple of things that should get mentioned; the tasman was designed to withstand a collision from a ship; exactly the impact it was designed to withstand I don't remember off the top of my head however there's an old newsreel/short on its construction here on youtube from 1964 that explains all that. and my personal favourite thing to bring up whenever this subject surfaces is that the ferries were such a nuisance to deal with that there was a song released by curly rivers called the ferryboat shuffle. hearing about this incident from a young age is probably the reason I'm fascinated with accidents, after all
I never heard of this story. Wish there was channels like yours who did Australian events
Thank you for another fascinating but respectful history lesson
Thank you for another excellent and informative presentation, sir.
Hello, I’m a new subscriber and really like your research you do. Great video. Your very respectful. Thank you 💜
I love your presentations and informative telling that really goes into the engineering. Honestly a bit surprised to see a video from you on a location so close to home! The expantion of the two side basically never stopped, and the old bridge can barely support the amount of traffic, to the point they even brought back the ferries.
So awesome that you made a video about my home town!!
Thank you for this informative video. I got to visit Hobart in Feb 2019 and learned about this. As a structural engineer I found it fascinating.
Thank you - as a former Tasmanian, I appreciate the work that you did on this video- this is the first time EVER that I’ve seen a video on the bridge collapse that wasn’t just a shallow look at the cars that went over the edge & the ones that nearly did - I’ve learned something from your video 😃
What a horrific tragedy. Thank you for sharing1
The model at 14:02 really tells the present story.
I remember when I was over in South Korea in the military in 1994 and they had a bridge collapse. They killed a number of high school girls.
What is it with South Korea and student deaths en mass!!!!!
Thank you for being informative and respectful.
That's very interesting, l heard a little bit about this tragedy when was younger, now l know everything about it. Thanks for an intriguing catalog of well produced videos. Be great if Brick lmmortar would cover the 1973 Melbourne West Gate Bridgework collapse disaster .
As noted the similarities between this and the Tampa Sunshine Skyway bridge collapse are astonishing and horrifying.
Even with all of the lessons learned from this incident and the collapse of the Skyway and yet we still have disasters like that of the Francis Scott Key happen. This is why I have come to appreciate the work you've done with these videos so much over the past several years and hope to see a spotlight on this new incident in the future.
Thanks for letting me know about ground news. I’ll check it out, seems promising.
Could you please do a look into the Westgate bridge collapse that happened in Melbourne during 1970?
Excellent summation of tragic events.
I bet this one has suddenly spiked in views again.
Well done. Factual, historical and without sickening glitz and pomp. A true tribute to a very sad event.
Nice to see an Aussie incident the west gate bridge collapse should be looked at
I'm ashamed to admit that I had no idea where Tasmania was until I watched this video.
Rest In Peace to the victims
Very well done, thank you.
Thanks for this story. I didn’t know about this one. Amazing they left the ship there and are mapping it still today.
An incredibly tragic piece of Australian history I shamefully knew nothing about - thank you for posting.
Well-researched and presented. Liked and Subscribed
I drop everything to watch these when they come out
So tragic! Well done video.
Wow. Great documentary!
So cute the way you say Tasman!! Kinda like the way North Americans say Melbourne or Brisbane too... they all make us smile!! I was only a kid when this accident happened but I remember it clearly! Many thanks, really interesting and well done!!
Amazing presentation !!!!!
I wasn't familiar with this incident. Thanks for uploading.