Case file · Official inquiry
Silver Bridge collapse
On 15 December 1967 the Point Pleasant–Gallipolis bridge over the Ohio River collapsed at rush hour, killing 46 people; Mothman lore later tied it to the creature sightings.
1967 CE · 38.84, -82.14 · status: explained
The account
Investigators traced the failure to a single cracked eyebar in a suspension chain, from a flaw only about 2.5 mm deep. The disaster changed how US bridges are inspected.
The sceptical view
The engineering cause is fully documented; the link to Mothman is a later folkloric connection.
Connections in the atlas
- Mothman Festival and statue
- The Silver Bridge
- ? What was the Mothman, and did it foretell the Silver Bridge collapse?
- The curse of Cornstalk
- The Mothman Prophecies
- Point Pleasant lights of 1967
- Gray Barker's 'The Silver Bridge'
- Indrid Cold, the 'Grinning Man'
- Mothman