How the Bridge Fared on a Previous Inspection

During New York City’s fiscal crisis, the Manhattan Bridge suffered a lack of maintenance and repairs. By the end of 1990, two sets of subway tracks were shut down to avoid overtaxing the weakened structure, which was inspected inch by inch over the following summer. The designer obtained the Department of Transportation log and sorted detailed locations of the corroded and cracked areas. By stacking the total number of dangerous “spots” over each roadway panel, the resulting diagram conveyed the location of the worst damage, emphasizing the cumulative number of problems by the degree of vertical stacking. The diagram was completed in July 1992, just as inspectors found a hole in a support beam which forced a shutdown of the entire bridge.