Bridges Facts

A chain-reaction crash on the Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville sent a semi-truck dangling nearly 100 feet over the Ohio River with the driver trapped inside. Firefighter Bryce Carden, 29, was lowered by rope over the bridge edge, cut her free, harnessed her, and both were hoisted to safety. The whole rescue took 40 minutes.

P.T. Barnum led 21 elephants - including the famous Jumbo - across the Brooklyn Bridge to prove it was safe. Six days after it opened in 1883, a stampede rumor sparked a panic that left 12 people dead and shattered public confidence. The elephant parade fixed it. It worked.

London Bridge, the real one from the Thames, now stands in the Arizona desert. In 1968, developer Robert McCulloch bought it for .46 million. Workers numbered every exterior granite block, shipped them 10,000 miles through the Panama Canal, and rebuilt the bridge over a canal in Lake Havasu City. It reopened in 1971 and still draws tourists today.