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Department of Civil Engineering
Genoa Bridge Failure
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  1. The roadway connected to this tower ran nearly 150 feet above a dry riverbed and a railway.
  2. The cables in the bridge’s southern stays broke, causing the stays suddenly to go slack. Sections of the road started to tilt southward.
  3. As sections of the roadway began to break apart, the weight of the road rested fully on the northern stays …
    …and the remaining cable and concrete stays broke apart.
  4. The severed ends of the stays dangled from the top of the tower as pieces of the roadway crashed to the ground, some landing upside down.
  5. Finally the nearly 300-foot tower collapsed into the center of the pile of rubble.



This website was originally developed by Charles Camp for CIVL 3121.
This site is maintained by the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Memphis.
Your comments and questions are welcomed.


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Department of Civil Engineering | 104 Engineering Science Bldg | Memphis, TN 38152 | Phone: 901/678-2746 | Fax: 901/678-3026 | Last updated: 08/22/2023