Case Histories and the Study of Structural Failures

Case histories of failures have always been part of the engineering literature, but their lessons appear to have been least heeded during extended periods of great technological evolution, such as that associated with the progress in bridge building that occurred between 1840s and the 1930s. This period of ever increasing analytical advances and great leaps in structural magnitude also witnessed some of the most significant bridge failures of all time. In the wake of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, especially, case histories of failures have come to be recognized as major sources of insight and judgment in structural design and construction.