Snapping Suspension Bridge | National Geographic

the Forth Road Bridge is outfitted with
a temporary elevator taking us up to a
work platform on the suspension cable
this cable is corroding this is the
first bridge to install an experimental
technology to try to stop it it starts
with wrapping the entire cable with
rubber to make it airtight so that’s
done cable right there that’s rough
let’s set up cable inside small wires
are tightly bound but being round there
are pockets of air between them moisture
seeps into these spaces and that
corrodes the metal they’ll use a sort of
giant hairdryer to pump dehumidified air
into those tiny spaces to get it dry and
keep it dry that’s one of the inlets for
the dry air right there but like I said
this is experimental there are no
guarantees of success they need a way to
know if they’re successfully preventing
further corrosion in the wires a complex
system of monitors will gather data to
let them know if the experiment is
working for instance microphones can
actually listen to the cable for the
distinct sound of a wire snapping you
get not and you know if you want to get
it in your mobile phone you as a choir
these guys have the wrapping under
control but I have another job in mind
I’m heading up to the top of the tower
where the cable is already wrapped I’ll
meet the team installing the sensors on
the cable they’re running data lines
from there all the way down to the
engineers on the ground it’s the getting
down part that I’m interested in wait
till you see this
really tight quarters in here after all
the towers of these suspension bridges
not really built the tourist rate these
are the guys I’ll be working with today
I got your lunch
it’s a cricket’s way to ingratiate
yourself with any new crew bring once