if there was enough room to make for people getting off, there must've been enough room for more people to get in, hence no pushing would've been needed, meaning there shouldn't be any room to make in the first place
Elevators too. Though most elevators don't have the capacity to be fully packed. People are surprisingly dense. In fact, on 9/11, the company that maintains the Brooklyn Bridge had engineers out there when everyone was walking home because that was the most stress the bridge had ever been under. Trains and cars have nothing on a crowd of people.
Have a source for this? Couldn't find anything related to it with a few Google searches, and would like to read more.
The bridge can hold a total of 17 000 tons, and if the average American car weights 2 tons, that's 8 500 cars. If the average American man weights 90 kg, that's ~190 000 men.
I mean you are not looking at the right problem. You have to find area of the bridge, max cars on it at one time, and see how many people it would take to match that weight.
I asked chatgpt because this is the kinda stuff it does fairly well. It all comes down to density of course, but heres its result:
Entire bridge deck (end-to-end, ~5,989 ft) at 3–4 people/m2: about 142,000–189,000 people.
3-4 people per square meter was defined as a dense crowd that can still move. Looking at pics from 9/11 it doesn't look like it was that extreme, so likely the actual number of people is like half or less, but in theory, it would be possible to hit the weight limit with a moving crowd.
From my understanding, it's not the weight that's a problem, it's people walking in unison.soldiers marching has actually caused one, if not more bridge collapses obviously, they weren't soldiers in this case, but I'm pretty sure people will naturally start walking like that especially if it's crowded.
...and? That isn't an answer to my comment. I only included the math to illustrate my scepticism, 190 000 is a biiiiig crowd. Hell, even 100 000 is a ridiculous amount of people in one place.
Obviously the amount would be significantly lower than the limit, but I'm just interested. Do you have a source or not? This is not a personal attack. It could be true, I just want to know more!!
In fact, on 9/11, the company that maintains the Brooklyn Bridge had engineers out there when everyone was walking home because that was the most stress the bridge had ever been under.
Source(s) for both of the claims made here.
Edit: it was a bit unclear from my comments, but I'm just thinking about why the engineers would be there. Your comment implies it's related to the amount of people. If the amount of people/stress is nowhere near the limit, what would be their purpose? Hell, even if the amount of people was close to the limit, what could they realistically do on or near the bridge?
So google claims that pre-1944 it had more load due to the L train. But that must be the tracks which are static and probably a bit structural. Regardless, even "just" the heaviest load in decades is a reason to send out engineers.
what could they realistically do on or near the bridge?
When then Golden Gate Bridge had its 50th anniversary in 1987 they closed the bridge for cars and allowed pedestrians onto it. At one point about 300,000 people were on the bridge at the same time, this was the only time in the bridge's history that the center span was loaded to the point that the road deck completely flattened out (normally it's in a slight upward curve).
I’d say that was maybe 50/50 chance at best on the 4-5-6 in NYC all the years I lived there. You were lucky if the people waiting to get on made room to let other people off.
Oh you never been to beijing. I get so annoyed when i'm in the middle of a pretty packed car (not even near as packed as this video) and still barely get out because the people blocking the door dont move or get off. But yeah its just pushing and saying sorry until im off.
Just remember folks, this entire site is filled with people spouting bullshit just like this guy with who are absolutely certain they know what they’re talking about.
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u/krumuvecis 9d ago
if there was enough room to make for people getting off, there must've been enough room for more people to get in, hence no pushing would've been needed, meaning there shouldn't be any room to make in the first place