Closure of the bridge only two days after opening attracted public criticism as another high-profile British Millennium project that suffered an embarrassing setback, akin to how many saw the Millennium Dome. It is the newest bridge across the Thames. In spite of the successful cure, the affectionate "wobbly bridge" (sometimes "wibbly-wobbly") epithet remains in common usage among Londoners. At … Officials shut it down after just two days, and the bridge remained closed for the next two years until appropriate modifications could be made to stop the swaying. This compares to a figure of around 1.3 to 1.5 persons per square metre seen at the peak on opening day. It was not fit for purpose until a costly retrofit made it immune to the lateral forces generated by pedestrian crowds. While the Millennium Bridge in London has never collapsed (Figure 31.8), the need for an emergency retrofit shortly after the opening of the bridge represented a failure in design objective. DOI: Biology Letters, 2018. Technically, it's known as aerodynamically induced self-excitation, or "flutter"—a self-sustaining vibrational feedback loop. The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames in London, linking Bankside with the City of London. When the bridge lurches to one side, the pedestrians must adjust to keep from falling over, and they all do this at the same time. Since the Millennium Bridge is expected to be a popular location for crossing the Thames, we decided on a design level of 2 persons per square metre over the whole bridge for the design of the damping. 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0564  (About DOIs). "They emerge together, as dual aspects of a single instability mechanism, once the crowd reaches a critical size. The bridge opened on 10 June 2000. [17][18] The lower end of the lift is on Paul's Walk next to the Thames, and the top end is 26.85 metres (29.36 yd) further up Peter's Hill on the terrace which is level with the deck of the bridge. The London Millennium Footbridge opened in 2000. The eight suspension cables are tensioned to pull with a force of 2,000 tons against the piers set into each bank—enough to support a working load of 5,000 people on the bridge at a time. [9] Instead, the resonance was controlled by retrofitting 37 viscous fluid dampers to dissipate energy. In reality, people try to avoid colliding with others, or suddenly change directions, for example. Federal and state and experts had approved the plans. Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. CNMN Collection Another possible explanation was that coupling between lateral andtorsional deck movements was allowing vertical footfall excitation to excite lateral modes, but this was notfound to be a significant factor. The work took from May 2001 to January 2002 and cost £5M. ", As for this latest paper, "The authors use a much more realistic and biomechanically inspired model of human walking than my colleagues and I were able to muster back in 2005," says Strogatz. The winning entry was an innovative "blade of light" effort from Arup Group, Foster and Partners, and Sir Anthony Caro. A phenomenon called "vortex shedding" set the bridge to undulate (or gallop). The original cantilever bridge was struck by the freighter MV Summit Venture after its radar failed in the midst of a thunderstorm. It is a steel suspension bridge which links Bankside with the City. Get a large enough crowd matching their stride to the bridge's motion, and the swaying can become dangerously severe, as happened with the Millennium Bridge. [9] On the day of opening, the bridge was crossed by 90,000 people, with up to 2,000 on the bridge at a time. These include 17 chevron dampers – long V-shaped braces under the deck panels – to control lateral movement, 4 vertical to ground dampers to control lateral and vertical movements, and 16 pier dampers to control lateral and torsional movements. That's why so many scientists continue to be fascinated by the problem. Attempts had been made to limit the number of people crossing the bridge, which led to long queues but were ineffective to dampen the vibrations. [16], A short inclined lift, known as the Millennium Inclinator, is next to the northern end of the Millennium Bridge. [14][15], An artistic expression of the higher-frequency resonances within the cables of the bridge were explored by Bill Fontana's 'Harmonic Bridge' exhibition at the Tate Modern museum in mid-2006. The design of the bridge was the subject of a competition organised in 1996 by Southwark council and RIBA Competitions. Ultimately, he hopes to learn more about the biomechanics of how we can adapt so quickly to unusual situations, like a moving surface. London Millenium Footbridge – The Millennium Bridge, or the Millennium Bridge, located in London, was first opened in June 2000. Ars may earn compensation on sales from links on this site. When London's Millennium Bridge first opened in June 2000, the city was alarmed to discover that the motion of crowds of pedestrians crossing it gave rise to significant shaking and swaying. "It's only when there are a sufficient number of people on the bridge that the crowd become synchronized. Certain types of bridge are susceptible to mechanical resonanceeffects even when marching soldiers are not involved. The specific circumstances might be different, but in principle that's what we see in the Harry Potter scene. Appearances [edit | edit source] It reopened in February 2002. Its position is between Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge. Shock: No One Expected The Collapse: Almost No One. While there have been many different approaches to studying these fascinating dynamics over the years—including a lab-based treadmill recreation of people walking across Millennium Bridge by Cambridge University engineer Allan McRobie—this is a significantly improved model of how people adjust their gait when walking on a wobbly surface, according to co-author Varun Joshi of Ohio State University. The bridge is located between Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge. The bridge opened on 10 June 2000. [2] The eventual cost was £18.2 million (£2.2m over budget), primarily paid for by the Millennium Commission and the London Bridge Trust. "Their periodic footfalls pumped energy into the bridge and caused it to move from side to side, which in turn caused the people to adjust their gaits to conform to the movement of the bridge," he says. The bridge oscillations build in strength. The crowd does not synchronize, yet the bridge spontaneously begins to move.". The Millennium Bridge, which was closed for swaying, will reopen on Friday 22 February. The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge spanning the River Tyne between the Gateshead arts quarter on the south bank and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. But a fictional version was destroyed by marauding Death Eaters in the 2009 film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. A Cambridge University Engineering Department account of the Millennium Bridge problem. [19], A major renovation project was undertaken in 2012, and the funicular was reopened in time to be used by people attending the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant of 3 June 2012, which took place about a month before the 2012 Summer Olympics. The greater the number of people, the greater the amplitude of the vibrations. Jennifer Ouellette Sign up or login to join the discussions! Thirty-five people died as a result, and the bridge was eventually demolished to clear way for a safer version stabilized with co… [9], They concluded that making the bridge stiffer, to move its resonant frequency out of the excitation range, was not feasible as it would greatly change its appearance. I have this vivid recollection that there was a similar bridge collapse in London a … [1] Construction began in late 1998 and the main works were started on 28 April 1999 by Monberg & Thorsen and Sir Robert McAlpine. a "terminating vista") of St Paul's south façade is presented from across the river, framed by the bridge supports. The newspaper says that the collapse of the bridge raised the death toll although it appears that everyone got off the bridge before the collapse. Due to safety concerns, the bridge was closed for almost 2 years. [5] An example is London's Albert Bridge, which has a sign dating from 1873 warning marching ranks of soldiers to break step while crossing.[6]. The Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian bridge built across the Thames on the eve of the third millennium. It is the newest bridge across the Thames. Science Shack Why did the Millennium Bridge wobble? On its opening day, the London Millennium Bridge experienced unexpected swaying due to the large number of people crossing it. • The bridge is featured in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, where the bridge collapses following an attack by Death Eaters. This wave-like swaying eventually became its downfall as the bridge collapsed on November 7th, 1940 during a windstorm, a mere four months after its construction was complete. You must login or create an account to comment. In a 2015 simulation, Joshi and his co-author, Manoj Srinivasan—both of whom have backgrounds in studying human locomotion—found that people walking in synchrony with a sideways-swaying bridge lowers the metabolic energy cost of the motion. In fact, Cornell University mathematician Steven Strogatz co-authored a 2005 Nature paper with McRobie and two others that modeled the dynamics of the Millennium Bridge as a weakly damped and driven harmonic oscillator. The risks of lateral vibration in lightweight bridges are well known. So they incorporated that feedback into their simulations. The Millennium Bridge was the result of a 1996 competition held by Southwark Council … Londoners nicknamed it the "Wobbly Bridge" after pedestrians experienced an alarming swaying motion on its opening day. Since "humans are top-heavy objects, often modeled as an inverted pendulum," the authors write, we need that feedback to stabilize us; otherwise we'd lose our balance pretty quickly. The Millennium Bridge has featured in several films since it opened. [21], View of Tate Modern & Millennium Bridge, London, Life: The Observer Magazine – A celebration of 500 years of British Art – 19 March 2000, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "All troops must break step on Albert Bridge", "Theoretical mechanics: Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge,", "Millennium Bridge over the River Thames, joining the Tate Modern and St Paul's London – photos, history and background", "Second wobbly bridge for London – News – London Evening Standard", The sound sculptures and ideas of Bill Fontana, "Millennium Bridge throws another wobbly as 'erratic' disabled lift must have £750,000 replacement", "Harry Potter Film Locations in London – Millennium Bridge", "Guardians Of The Galaxy Cast Get Physical In London Shoot", Brooklyn Bridge: lateral S-shaped vibration = pedestrian oscillations or "sway". Evide… We want to walk without falling, and will make adjustments based on the feedback we receive from our environment. Their work here is done: Death Eaters make their escape. According to Strogatz, the bridge was driven to sway sideways by the pedestrians as they walked across it. Your California Privacy Rights | Do Not Sell My Personal Information [20] Installation was by Axis Elevators. But during the discovery of the divine creators did not even suspect that they would have to re-open their bridge. The spontaneous synchrony of the crowd was similar to what happens with the highly synchronized flashing of fireflies or firing of neurons in the brain. This used acoustic transducers placed at strategic locations on the cabling of the Millennium Bridge and the signals from those transducers were amplified and dynamically distributed throughout the Turbine Hall of the Tate by a programme which Fontana entered into the sound diffusion engine of the Richmond Sound Design AudioBox. [10] Any bridge with lateral frequency modes of less than 1.3 Hz, and sufficiently low mass, could witness the same phenomenon with sufficient pedestrian loading. The bridge was a state-of-the-art structure. The Millennium Bridge officially opens to the public on Saturday 10 June 2000 with a sponsored walk in aid of Save the Children beginning at 9 am. Ad Choices, "Wobbling and synchrony are inseparable. The ship’s collision with one of the bridge’s support columns caused the structure to collapse, sending six cars, a truck and a Greyhound bus plummeting 150 ft. into Tampa Bay. [17][18] It was primarily installed for use by those who cannot easily manage the steep steps, such as people with disabilities and parents with push chairs. - YouTube ...Engineering Disaster The Silver Bridge Collapse... Engineering Disaster The Silver Bridge Collapse... Engineering The structure in question is the Millennium Bridge in London, UK, connecting St Paul’s Cathedral to the Tate Modern Gallery. The bridge was closed later that day and, after two days of limited access, it was closed again for almost two years so that modifications and repairs could be made to keep the bridge stable and stop the swaying motion. Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Millennium_Bridge,_London&oldid=997510210, Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark, Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium, Pedestrian bridges across the River Thames, Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Southwark, Tourist attractions in the City of London, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from May 2020, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from December 2019, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The bridge appears in the anime adaptation of. In the case of the Millennium Bridge, because the lateral motion caused pedestrians to directly participate with the bridge, the vibrational modes had not been anticipated by the designers. This is a fairly decent fictional portrayal of a different bridge dynamic, calling to mind the infamous collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka "Galloping Gertie") in 1940. The bridge's alignment is such that a clear view (i.e. As for the metabolic energy cost, once the virtual bridge began to shake, the simulated walkers widened their steps—a much less energy-efficient gait. One of the most interesting facts about the Millennium … Death Eaters take out key structural supports, causing the bridge to gallop and twist, and the resulting feedback loop gets so strong that a center portion of the bridge collapses. [19], The lift carriage was originally powered by an electric traction motor, manufactured in Italy by Maspero Elevatori, with a speed of 0.5 metres per second (1.6 ft/s) and a maximum capacity of 0.7 metric tons (0.77 short tons; 0.69 long tons). The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames in London, England, linking Bankside with the City of London.It is located between Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge.It is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. The better we understand these dynamics in general, the better (and safer) future bridge designs will be. It suggests that one might not even need synchronization to cause the shaking. But on a bridge, this exacerbates the problem, giving rise to additional small sideways oscillations that amplify the swaying. It offers a clear view of St. Paul’s Cathedral. I've been rewatching the Harry Potter series as of late, and at the beginning of the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Death Eaters fly past the pedestrian-filled Millennium Bridge and destroy it. The bridge has two river piers and is made of three main sections of 81 m (266 ft), 144 m (472 ft), and 108 m (354 ft) (north to south) with a total structure length of 325 m (1,066 ft); the aluminium deck is 4 m (13 ft) wide. "Why the Millennium Bridge wobbled". A few minutes later, a 200-metre section of the bridge collapsed, including one of its three supporting towers. Their latest study looks at a different biomechanical principle. The culprit was not Millennium Bridge's design. Londoners nicknamed it "Wobbly Bridge." Mechanical structures usually have one or more frequencies at which some part of the structure oscillates. Every twist of the bridge amplified the wind's effect instead of dampening it, until the pent-up energy got so strong the entire structure collapsed. Sometimes engineers underestimate the power of resonance and positive feedback phenomena, when a small disturbance is exacerbrated through the feedback loop, resulting in a disaster.A great example of this phenomena is the infamous Millennium Bridge, nicknamed it the “Wobbly Bridge”. "Wobbling and synchrony are inseparable," Strogatz et al wrote. As people crossed the bridge, they felt a wobble that continued to grow. Structural damage inflicted by the Death Eaters causes the bridge to begin to sway and twist. It is a pedestrian bridge 325 meters long and it … WIRED Media Group The bridge hasn't had a significant wobble problem since it reopened in February 2002. Vibration was attributed to an under-researched phenomenon whereby pedestrians crossing a bridge that has a lateral sway have an unconscious tendency to match their footsteps to the sway, exacerbating it. A costly retrofit made it immune to the bridge has n't had a significant wobble since. 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