The National Transportation Safety Board is warning that 68 bridges in 19 states should be inspected for their risk of collapse if a vessel were to collide with them. The recommendations come in the wake of the investigation into the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last year and are based on the fact that the bridges were built before 1991, when new guidelines were put into place. Those guidelines came after the deadly 1980 collapse of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Florida’s Tampa Bay, which happened when a freighter hit it in stormy weather. The bridge that replaced that one is on the NTSB’s new list. Others include San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and both the Brooklyn Bridge and George Washington Bridge in New York City. The NTSB notes the bridges aren’t necessarily in danger, but rather that their risk is unknown.
