Pigeon Droppings to Blame For Bridge Collapse

Source: Yahoo! News-http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_sc/bridge_collapse_pigeons

I'd imagine that maybe the acid found in droppings could have led to erosion, but the whole blame shouldn't be on birds. Opinions?

 

That's pretty hard to follow, but yes, it doesn't seem much entirely like the birds' fault. Something besides the amount of pigeon dung had to have caused the collapse; probably the weight on the bridge helped too, not so sure.

 

i seriously doubt that pigeon droppings could cause a bridge to collapse, no matter how much the amount

 

maybe they might have made the bridge rust FASTER,, but they cant be to blame foor the entire thing....

 

Yes, it did cause it to rust faster. But then that can't really entirely be at the fault of the birds. Nothing was there to make it collapse, I doubt just lone poop on a bridge could do that.

 

This just tells me they shouldn't have used such shoddy metal that could the acid could corrode and break down. Also, perhaps after this, they will figure a way to just wash the bridge bolts down now and then if this is in fact the issue.

 

Pigeon droppings is the stupidest thing to blame this on.

Even if the droppings are usually twice as heavy as the food they eat, that doesn't mean it's all because of that.

I bet the day it collapsed was the day that it was rush hour on the bridge.

 

Well, it's true that the acid in the droppings could have aided in erroding the bridge. However, it had been noticed before that the bridge wasn't in perfect condition, and yet it was ignored. The whole thing could have been prevented if they had taken the engineer's advice more seriously...because bridges are just paper in comparison to the forces of nature, and it doesn't matter how much they can hold...they're still relatively easy to destroy.

 

Acid droppings could be one of the few factors as to why the bridge collapsed. However, not all fault goes to the bird. Whoever created that bridge should've used stronger material to at least better support the hundreds of cars during rush hour. -.-

 

Well, I don't think it was the materials used so much...I think it was how the materials stood up over time, and how their weakening was ignored...simply because they hadn't seen a major bridge collapse in a while.

 

yes, it may have had a small factor but you really can't blame the pigeons on the whole thing, the bridge was somewhat old and it should have had better maintainance work on it. Some acidic poop or not, really I think if someone payed attention to the little details like cracks forming and such, then did something about it, I doubt it would have happened.

 

Good, I'd rather have the bridge collapse blamed on pidgeon crap then on the war in iraq. which is where everyone's head immidiettly turned when it happened. At least this is somewhat an actual REASON.

 

I fail to see how pigeon shmat was able to destroy the bridge. Unless we think that their crap is acidic enough melt steel and concrete, this is seemingly pointless.

 

This is about as likely as someone making the bridge collapse because of salsa. Even if pigeon guano is to blame for all of this, there are dozens of compounds out there to turn the acidic solution into a neutral solution, so it wouldn't be a threat to the bridge. This just seems like laziness.

 

Honestly, I believe it's pathetic. The bridge was proven to be poor to being with.

Yeah, I guess the pigeon droppings could have contributed to it's collapse, but it was a poor, unsafe bridge to begin with. Nothing was done about it.

 

I live in Minnesota. Umm I find it rather hard to believe. We don't have pigeon problems here as bad as other places. And I mean how come they haven't caused smaller bridges here to fall yet?

 

haha that's awesome!. This should be in the Spam-Zone.

But to stay on Topic-

I dot understand how pigeon crap can cause a bridge to collapse 0.o

 

if it was bird poo - why didn't they clean it up - that's just wrong

 

Ok I know this is somewhat old news now. I went to the bridge and forgot to post here. And when I saw it I thought no way in hell did bird poop cause this.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z151/Danfort/DSCF0594.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z151/Danfort/DSCF0592.jpg

Those pictures don't show it very well but being there and seeing it was way different from the news. To think pigeon poop caused the bridge to collapse is absurd.