The stuff of nightmares
I don’t know about you, but to me these bridges are not my idea of a rollicking good time.
And I’ve actually been on one of them, the Capilano. But not all the way. For me, it was a bridge too far.
This is how I like to enjoy it, from the comfort of home (I chose this particular video because it gives you the proper shaky feel, which my older brother liked to augment):
I’m certain I wouldn’t enjoy one either.
But it could be much worse; “Indonesian students face Indiana Jones-style river crossing every day”
Then, there’s this; “The Grand Canyon Skywalk”
Both of the above elicit among many people, the following;
“The fear of falling (FOF) is a natural fear and is typical of most humans and mammals, in varying degrees of extremity. It differs from acrophobia (the fear of heights), although the two fears are closely related and sometimes indistinguishable. The fear of falling encompasses the anxieties accompanying the sensation and the possibly dangerous effects of falling, opposed to the heights themselves. Individuals suffering from barophobia may fear falling solely because of the gravity pull associated with it. Those who have little fear of falling may be said to have ‘a head for heights’.”
But remember it’s not the fall that kills, it’s the sudden stop. 😉
The bridge would pose no problem for me. I skydive, once or twice a month, April through October, so no fear of heights or of falling. Its the most exhilarating experience that I know of. My buddies and I typically a jump 3 or 4 times each visit to the airfield. Note, I am not an adrenaline junky, but the sensations of free fall followed by floating through the sky after deploying are pure joy for divers. You land with a big smile on your face no matter how many jumps you have made over the years.
It’s interesting that while I have a slight fear of heights and of falling, I love to fly and the one time I actually flew a small airplane, I never felt the slightest discomfort. I suspect being in control or not is the difference.
I’d be on my knees, crawling across at an extremely slow pace and the only reason I would be on the bridge to begin with would be if someone forced me to do so. Uh uh. No way. No thanks.
I have one word: “resonance”! Google Tacoma Narrows.
The video doesn’t show any warning signs on this bridge. At Cornell there are several of those type of bridges across the gorges on campus. The bridges (at least 25 years ago when I was last there) had signs admonishing the people using the bridges not to walk in step with each other…. a constant periodic driving force can send the bridge into resonance.
The bridge in the video has a lot of people all out of step with each other, but I can only imagine if someone organized everyone to all walk together 🙂
Tacoma bridge collapses from resonance, sure, but of very different type of resonance: torque oscillations generated by wind, essentially, aerodynamic flatter. This is a common problem with wide suspention bridges in windy gorges. The bridge on the video will have very low frequency of autooscillation due its length, incomparable with frequency of human walk, so a lot of people can safely walk in step on it without any resonance ivolved.
I suppose that I could handle the footbridges – especially the very sturdy-looking and relatively modern ones, but the ones carrying vehicular traffic… likely not. I don’t mind heights, just the possibility of falling off them gives me the willies.
The most white-knuckle drive I ever made was over the Coronado Bridge between San Diego and Coronado Island. Never again. OTO, the San Francisco Bay bridge wasn’t particularly worrisome. I think the difference must have been the height. The Bay Bridge is relatively straight, wide and level, and the Coronado Bridge loops way, way, way up and then down again.
Not going on any one of them, or anything similar.
Which reminded me of A Bridge too Far.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bridge_Too_Far_%28book%29
I never had a fear of heights or falling until my son was born. Thereafter I was (of course) worried that the little tyke would plummet off a ledge and somehow the fear communicated itself to me.
I’ve been on two frightening bridges.One was the Macinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My father cleverly allowed me to drive that bit (thanks, Dad!) and ,wow, you could see the water wayyy down there right through the grating that served as a pavement. The other was a one-way wood and steel cable bridge in the north of Quebec. Sure, it was OK for cars – at 10kph. It stretched over the (I think) Eastmain River, and it swayed.