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What were the worst engineering disasters in US history?
What was the deadliest engineering disaster of the 20th century?
Was the St Francis Dam the worst civil engineering disaster of the 20th century?
What disasters were caused by engineering failures?
- Banqiao Dam Failure. The Banqiao Dam failure in 1975 was the collapse of 62 dams in Henan, China, which was caused by Typhoon Nina. Occurring in August 1975, it is the third deadliest flood in history and resulted in the loss of lives in the range of 85,600 – 240,000.
- Bhopal Disaster. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy, also known as the Bhopal Disaster, occured in December 2nd-3d, 1985 in a pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.
- Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. The well-known Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred on April 26th, 1986. The power for the number four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant dropped to almost zero, which in turn caused a nuclear chain reaction within the reactor.
- Pennsylvanian Johnstown Flood. The Great Flood of 1889, also known as the Johnstown flood, occurred following the failure of the South Fork Dam, upstream of Johnstone town, Pennsylvania.
The HISTORY Channel’s new series examines the catastrophic result of some of the world’s worst engineering disasters caught on tape. Each episode breaks down shocking footage from collapses and...
- Tough lessons. Things don't always work the way they were intended to work. Sometimes those failures are almost imperceptible as they build incrementally, and other times, they happen in a terrible, overwhelming instant.
- Hyatt Regency walkway collapse (1981) On July 1, 1980, the newly constructed Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, opened to the public. The hotel featured several suspended walkways crossing its multistory atrium.
- Johnstown Flood (1889) On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam broke, unleashing 20 million tons of water from the artificial Lake Conemaugh. The city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania was 14 miles (23 kilometers) down the Conemaugh River, and the waters destroyed 4 square miles (10 square kilometers) of the city's downtown.
- Space Shuttle Challenger (1986) The 25th flight of the space shuttle Challenger, STS-51L lasted just 73 seconds on Jan. 28, 1986. Shortly after liftoff, smoke briefly appeared at a joint on the right rocket booster.
Engineers reveal the surprising details behind the world’s deadliest bridge, building, ship, and plane disasters caught on camera.
One of the worst structural disasters in US history, this tragedy occurred in the middle of a tea dance at the hotel. Read on as we explore how the Hyatt Regency walkway disaster came to be, what happened, and what the world learned from it.
The dam failed catastrophically in 1928, killing at least 431 people in the subsequent flood, in what is considered to have been one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and the third-greatest loss of life in California history.
Due to the tremendous loss of life and property damage estimated to be $7 million, some consider the failure of the St. Francis Dam to be the “worst American civil engineering disaster of the 20th century.” Aerial view of St. Francis dam site after failure.
