The 1967 Collapse of the Silver Bridge
The Francis Key Scott Bridge collapse in Baltimore gave me a flashback - The Collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, WV, in 1967.
On Friday, December 15, 1967, as a senior at Ohio University, I drove from Athens to my home in Dayton, Ohio, for a holiday break. Due to my deafness, I did not hear a car radio. At that time, there were no mobile phones, road warning signs, etc.
After entering my home, I spotted my mother sitting beside a landline telephone and cried. My dad pointed to a television screen. It showed the below:
I said, “The Silver Bridge is located in my birthplace of Point Pleasant, WV.”
My mother cried because she had attempted to reach her sister, Erma, who lived in Point Pleasant, all afternoon and evening. She had no luck until the following morning when she finally contacted Erma.
The following day, a local television crew (Dayton, Ohio) came to my house to interview my mother (Faith) because she was a native of Point Pleasant. (I don’t remember if I had seen this interview on TV since it was not closed captioned then.)
Forty-six people died in that collapse. Aunt Erma knew half of them since she taught most of them as a first-grade teacher.
The cause was a stress crack in a single link of the chain. Read a full detail - Silver Bridge Collapse Memorial
“At the West Virginia Division of Highways, every time we train new bridge inspectors, we talk about the Silver Bridge. It is the reason we do what we do,” said West Virginia Division of Highways State Bridge Engineer Tracy Brown.
Aftermath
1968: This collapse led to the creation of the first national bridge inspection program in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968. Bridge safety inspectors today still use these standards.
1975: Author/parapsychologist John Keel released his book, “The Mothman Prophecies.” This book tells about his investigation into alleged sightings of a large, winged creature known as The Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, between 1966 and 1967. He combined supernatural and cosmic theories and connected them to the collapse of the Silver Bridge.
Aunt Erma Barnett vehemently denied Keel’s claims.
2002: Sony Pictures released the film, “The Mothman Prophecies,” starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, and Will Patton.
Watch the official trailer video - The Mothman Prophecies"
2002: The local people started the Mothman Festival, an annual event held every third weekend in September commemorating the 1966 Point Pleasant, West Virginia Mothman sighting, which gave birth to the infamous red-eyed winged legend.
2003: The 12-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture, “The Mothman Statue”, was unveiled.
2005: Dedicated to the Mothman of West Virginia folklore, The Mothman Museum opened to the public.
2024: Yesterday, I stopped in Point Pleasant and reunited with John C. Musgrave, my second cousin, for the first time in 20s years. He is the former Mayor of the City of Point Pleasant, then the former West Virginia State Lottery Director for nearly two decades, and currently the Executive Director of the Mason County Development Authority. Read his short biography.
Imagine that John is 84 years old and has never stopped working! He is very motivated to rebuild the economy of Mason County (West Virginia).
As of this writing, six missing workers are presumed dead in the Baltimore harbor, but you should think that 46 persons died in the Silver Bridge collapse.