On this day in 1990, the I-90 Floating Bridge in Seattle collapsed. It sank so slowly that local news teams were able to easily record its comically slow demise.


There were no deaths or injuries in this not-so-sudden bridge collapse.

The concrete bridge was supported by floating pontoons (the lake it was built over was too deep and its bottom too mushy for solid supports, History explains), and on November 25th, 1990, the central pontoons began to fill with water. The bridge started to sink from the center out.


One man driving on the bridge at the start of the collapse “thought he was going down,” as the contemporary news report of K5 KING News noted. He and three others had ample time to retreat to safety and none were hurt.

Another eyewitness described the slow collapse of the officially-titled Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge as “like a big old battleship that had been hit by enemy fire” and concluded more simply that it was “awesome.”

Hat tip to $kaycog!