Yarmouth suspension bridge collapse

Background. The Yarmouth suspension bridge spanned the River Bure at Great Yarmouth from 1829. An Act of Parliament authorized its construction in 1827. The structure was supported by suspension chains formed from eyebars made by a local blacksmith. In 1844, the bridge was widened to accommodate two carriages, a modification not anticipated in the original design.

The Collapse. On 2 May 1845, a crowd gathered on the bridge to watch a circus stunt involving a clown sailing up the river. At least 300 people stood on the southern footway, four to five deep. The bridge collapsed under this concentrated load, resulting in the deaths of 79 people, predominantly children.

Structural Failure. Earlier crowds of 2–3 times as many people had previously been present on the bridge without incident, but on those occasions the loads had been spread more evenly across the two suspension chains. During the 1845 collapse, several thousand people viewed the clown from the river banks, while at least 300 stood in a crowd four to five deep on the southern footway.