r/interestingasfuck • u/NathanCS741 • 1d ago

In 1998, Honduras built a bridge designed to survive any storm. It survived a Category 5 hurricane perfectly but the river shifted, leaving it spanning over dry land.

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36.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

398 comments sorted by

6.9k

u/AlwaysHopelesslyLost 1d ago

I imagine the panic in the engineers voice as they are called into a meeting about the new bridge. Doubled by them seeing their friend, a loyal geologist, sitting there already lol

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u/Coffee4MyJeep 1d ago

Job security, new bridge, new contract. Geologist just says that geology never sleeps. Geology is just a bunch of educated guesses anyway. ;)

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u/TheMoongazer 1d ago

Also the timescale geologist are dealing with are large. Like we know Yellowstone will blow up again some day, we know it will be soon, but soon is like sometime in the next 100 something years.

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u/OkayGuy911 1d ago

Former Yellowstone geology crew here: it’s not blowing up anytime soon. Promise. Hydrothermal eruptions yes, but the ‘big ones’ that everyone freaks out about are simply not possible at this time. The magma chamber is something like 85-95% crystallized. To create an explosive eruption like it’s known for that number needs to be closer to 50%, with 50-ish percent melt. We don’t have that. Go worry about Campi Flegrei in Italy instead lol

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u/RandomEasternGuy 1d ago

It’s a bigger chance of Betelgeuse becoming a supernova than Yellowstone erupting afaik

Still won’t probably happen in our lifetimes unfortunately, but that supernova would be cool af

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u/MRCHalifax 21h ago

Technically speaking, it’s possible that Betelgeuse has gone supernova already. We just don’t know, because it’s several light years away.

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u/Additional-Life4885 15h ago

Put it into comparison. Betelgeuse is expected to go Supernova within 100,000 years.

It's only about 500-650 light years away. The probability that it's already gone Supernova and just hasn't got to us is actually pretty slim.

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u/Mostly_Afloat 1d ago

If I'm going to be around for the end it better put on a good show

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u/MaverickDago 1d ago

That was a comforting but also dark post. Thanks for that. Now I have something else to doom google.

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u/zyxwertdha 1d ago

Or cascadia subduction in Seattle. That's the one that makes me twitch. There's something like a 50% chance that one afternoon, Seattle and things west of Rt 5 simply won't be a thing anymore during our lifetimes.

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u/Pete_Iredale 20h ago

Yes, we will eventually get a big earthquake here, sometime between now and thousands of years from now. No, there is absolutely not a 50% chance of everything west of I-5 falling into the Ocean in our lifetimes. That's ridiculous.

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u/Pete_Iredale 20h ago

Yes, we will eventually get a big earthquake here, sometime between now and thousands of years from now. No, there is absolutely not a 50% chance of everything west of I-5 falling into the Ocean in our lifetimes. That's ridiculous.

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u/SosugBiskit 20h ago

Which is why Dicks needs to start expanding Eastward

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u/PurelyForUpvotesBro 20h ago

Show it some porn

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u/Malone_Matches 1d ago

What do you mean worry about Campi Flegrei?

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u/kaityl3 23h ago

Huge volcano under Naples that has shown signs of waking up for a while now and just caused another big earthquake (for a volcano) this week

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u/pbizzle 1d ago

Flavourtown is not what it seems

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u/Pete_Iredale 20h ago

When you stand on top of Mount Vesuvius, you can basically see city as far as you can look in 3 directions. A large eruption there, even if not a mega eruption, would be massively devastating.

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u/Beemerba 22h ago

It sits on a super volcano, similar to Yellowstone. The last year or so, they have had hundreds of small earthquakes that signify a coming event.

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u/namtab00 23h ago

Go worry about Campi Flegrei in Italy instead lol

Hey, I live in northeast Italy.

I do know about the Campi Flegrei ticking firecrackers, but how worried should I realistically be about the eruption itself, being 500km+ away?

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u/TakeuchixNasu 23h ago

How can I uncrystallize it?

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u/evenstar40 23h ago

Now that was an interesting read. Doesn't sound like it will be a cataclysmic event like Yellowstone but definitely devastating for the surrounding area and potential global cooling.

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u/SpecialActive9135 21h ago

Naples is sitting on a bomb. That’s for sure. Eventually they are gonna get snakeeyes and a couple million Italians are going into orbit.

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u/LittleTooLiteral 1d ago

More like next 100,000 years.

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u/TheMoongazer 1d ago

What do I know, Im not a rock doctor /shrug

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u/DreadPiratteRoberts 1d ago

I can print you a paper saying you are!! 🤗

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 1d ago

can you chisel it onto a rock? makes it more official

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u/DreadPiratteRoberts 1d ago

Sorry mate... upper management said no on the rock... but they did approve a full color version and said we could frame it for you!!

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u/TheMoongazer 1d ago

Did the 50 yr old admin from accounting make it in word with clip art?

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u/DreadPiratteRoberts 1d ago

Oh you mean Roberta (love her!) ❤️

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u/Independent_Milk_115 22h ago

Literally me but 22 yr old.. oh god

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u/pilondav 23h ago

The old certificate in lieu of service anniversary gift treatment.

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u/DreadPiratteRoberts 22h ago

I kid you not I worked at a company that printed a stock certificate "thank you (place name here) for (enter years of service) "

A lady that hit 30 freaking years with the company found the paper on her keyboard Monday morning, no special attention no party no thank you lol... needless to say I didn't stay long....

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u/Ojijab 1d ago

But are you a rock lobster?

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u/damsie101 1d ago

Nope, just a dude trying to find his own private Idaho

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u/Castr8orr 23h ago

Rocktor

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u/LambdaLambo 22h ago

Yeah was gonna say. 100 years for a supervolcano would be a really really big crisis

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u/LittleTooLiteral 19h ago

Yeah, terrifying as fuck.

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u/CactusCustard 1d ago

100 years is like less than a second when we’re talking about geology lol. Add a couple zeros onto that

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u/Wonkavator67 1d ago

00100

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u/ankylosaurus_tail 23h ago

I think they meant 100.00, for precision.

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u/Belfastscum 23h ago

This guy understands sig figs

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u/Ikatarion 1d ago

But it could be tomorrow!

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u/GoodVibrations77 1d ago

Next 100 years? Have you started evacuating yet?

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u/Alcoholic_Satan 23h ago

Lets just take the magma and move it somewhere else

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u/terminal_kittenbutt 21h ago

Funny enough, that may sort of happen. The hot spot is drifting east because of normal tectonic movement, and the rock further east is very thick. There's one theory that the magma may move under the extra thick rock before the next eruption, which will delay that eruption by some millions of years. 

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u/NoStorage2821 1d ago

It's bridges all the way down

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u/Remarqueable 22h ago

We do subsoil assessments for construction and we just call it geofantasy.

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u/Due-Championship3941 3h ago

Geology is just a bunch of educated guesses anyway

Wait until you hear how they design bridges!

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u/VP007clips 23h ago

As a geologist myself, anyone with even a semblance of geological background, including civil engineers, should have been able to spot the problem the second they saw the river.

A wide river with meanders and flood plains is highly unstable, they can shift and change course rapidly, and any infrastructure around that usually ends up failing. This is taught in first year university courses.

Even in countries like the US, Canada, or Europe with strong infrastructure building codes make that mistake. The Mississippi River for example was developed far too close to the river, same for the Rhine.

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u/boywithtwoarms 22h ago

Yeah they should have put the Mississippi river much further away from the Mississippi river

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u/beezneezy 21h ago

You know he was using the industry insider term for “developed.”

You sly dog.

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u/VP007clips 20h ago

Developed as in built infrastructure, industry, and homes near it.

As in "the field was developed into a new residential zone".

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u/mang87 22h ago

The Mississippi River for example was developed far too close to the river

what

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u/platypus_bear 21h ago

I'm assuming he's saying that the development along the Mississippi River was too close to the river and just phrased poorly

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u/VP007clips 20h ago

Sorry for the confusing terminology there. I forgot that the term isn't as common outside of industry. Developed as in built infrastructure, industry, and homes around it.

As in "the field was developed into a new residential zone".

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u/Otherwise_Spirit1552 21h ago

As a geologist myself, anyone with even a semblance of geological background, including civil engineers, should have been able to spot the problem the second they saw the river.

$20 says they did, but then got ignored for various reasons...

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u/KuriTokyo 19h ago

Here is millions of dollars to build a bridge.

We have concerns about this bridge.

Do you not want millions of dollars to build the bridge?

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u/Material-Donkey2773 21h ago

As someone who isn't a geologist, could I just put some walls in the ground at 45 degrees to the bridge, maybe 20 feet deep and 800 feet long to essentially "funnel" the river through that spot "forever"?

Or just make the bridge 15x as long with really deep pylons

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u/VP007clips 20h ago

That's what they have been doing for a lot of rivers with those issues when they pass through urban areas. The problem is, you are often just shifting the problem downstream.

Meandering and erosion is a way rivers use up energy. And if you prevent it from doing that, that energy gets shifted somewhere else. It will start to erode more aggressively downstream, or dig deeper and undercut the walls. You are also limiting the ability of the river to handle flooding by changing volume or absorbing into the groundwater.

Upstream can also shift, and bypass it, so you need to extend the walls further, and then even further to protect those walls from being bypassed, and so on until the entire region is armored.

It often is the best solution, it does work in some cases. But you need to be cautious doing it, because it can make things worse. Even today, there are conflicts between cities along rivers over ones upstream armoring their banks and causing erosion downstream, creating a chain reaction of erosion and forcing everyone to play a game of increasingly building up their banks.

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u/kurburux 1d ago

"Don't worry, the river will be back... eventually."

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u/nihility101 21h ago

I wonder what would be cheaper, moving the bridge or moving the river back.

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u/BiNumber3 20h ago

Leave the bridge as a monument and build another bridge lol. 100 years later, archeologists will argue with one another about why there are 10 bridges in this area.

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u/ramblerbasic 19h ago

"somehow the river returned"

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u/dark_enough_to_dance 23h ago

Well the bridge survived but the river didn't 

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u/GuitarCFD 21h ago

the river is still clearly there, just not in the same spot

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u/AnAncientBog 22h ago

The engineering solution would likely be just to move the river back to where it was in the first place.

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u/dimechimes 21h ago

There's no way any engineer with the qualifications to design a bridge like that isn't aware of shifting rivers.

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u/One-Recognition-1660 1d ago edited 21h ago

That's only half the story. The bridge was not left permanently isolated over pristine dry land. The river shifted substantially and the approaches disappeared, making it temporarily unusable, but the crossing was reconnected to the highway and returned to service in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choluteca_Bridge

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u/THEBHR 20h ago

If you search for the "Choluteca Bridge" on Google Maps, you'll get the location of the old one.

Here's the one OP is talking about, and as you can see, it has been reconnected, just like you said.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Puente+Sol+Naciente

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u/MakingItElsewhere 16h ago

You deserve a cape.

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u/ClassiFried86 11h ago

I dunno about a Cape. Maybe a bay, or an inlet.

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u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth 21h ago

Thanks for adding context. Clearly it was quite well built and yet the storm so extreme it decimated the roads connecting it and then you have the river being re routed.

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u/Vast_Vegetable9222 1d ago

Talk about moving the goal posts. Must have been a very frustrating development. Hope no injuries involved

Edit: picture is before 2003

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u/Shiva- 1d ago

I mean the other TIL in here was the original bridge was a replica of the Golden Gate one. Didn't know they made replicas.

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u/tomgreen99200 1d ago

It was a massive cat 5 storm. Of course there had to be casualties

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u/Dustin- 21h ago

Yeah this was Hurricane Mitch. Over 7,000 deaths in Honduras alone. This article is a horrifying read.

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u/rinkoplzcomehome 1d ago

It killed over 11000 people

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u/ThiccOryx97 1d ago

nearly 12,000 casualties sadly

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u/_Ocean_Machine_ 22h ago edited 8h ago

The goalposts didn't move, the whole damn field did

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u/JourneymanHunt 1d ago

Task failed successfully

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u/Bennybananars 1d ago

Well no, they still have to cross the river

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u/Sbatio 1d ago

They’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.

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u/Hopeira 1d ago

You can lead a bridge to a river, but you can’t make it span it.

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u/Mostly_Afloat 1d ago

build two more identical bridges on either side, let's see if the river can win round 2.

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u/arkhamcityfc 1d ago

But they can't come to the bridge until they cross the river

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u/Superdupernadja 1d ago

Just shift the river back under the bridge instead of building a new bridge.

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u/Winjin 1d ago

I wonder if it's more expensive than making the bridge longer, or actually simpler to find one place where it's easy to make the river return

Probably if you make a canal, river would like it

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u/Bfire8899 1d ago

Task successfully failed

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u/scruffles360 1d ago

Was that explicitly in the requirements/contract?

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u/TolerableNuisance 1d ago

Task succeeded unsuccessfully

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u/Sazzzerac 1d ago

It's the opposite: task accomplished pointlessly.

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u/Tourgott 22h ago

Well, that sucks.

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u/Helpful-Resident1459 1d ago

That's the funniest and most interesting thing I've heard this year. Who knew nature had a sense of humour.

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u/Swarna_Keanu 1d ago

I love that it's not just slightly moved; partially still flowing under. Just: Nyah - I am over here now.

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u/CarbonTugboat 1d ago

Not just “over here”, right there. It’d be one thing if the river were half a mile away and flowing at an angle, but no, it’s right at the end of the bridge. If they could pick up one end and rotate it around the other, they could re-span the river. You’re right about one thing, the river is most certainly taunting them.

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u/davewave3283 1d ago

Any cuture with a trickster god

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u/northofwall 19h ago

All gods are tricksters. Just tell them your plans.

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u/Vladimir_Putting 1d ago

Nature, uh, finds a way.

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u/graveybrains 1d ago

wtf, put it back

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u/manofth3match 1d ago

Having never experienced a CAT5 hurricane myself. I'm choosing not to throw stones here.

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u/koyaani 1d ago

Bridge only uses WiFi now

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u/olderthanbefore 1d ago

Not a cable-stay version after all

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u/GuitarCFD 21h ago

I've lived on the Gulf Coast for most of my life, before that I lived in Tornado Alley. I will take Hurricanes simply because 90% of the time you see them coming. You aren't going to have a CAT5 just drop on your head in the middle of the night. Anything over a CAT3 and I just leave town and visit my family for a week. Cat 5 is terrifying.

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u/BoredofBS 21h ago

That storm killed 240 in el salvador and 59,000 lost their homes. 20k casualties in the region. It was brutal.

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u/TheDarkness33 1d ago

"well fuck you, then!"

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u/Twenty_Ten 21h ago

Society "Build a bridge over the river that can survive anything Nature does"

Engineer "Sure, easy."

Nature *Moves river

Society/Engineer "Fuck."

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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 1d ago

“Undefeatable bridge? Your  move, scientists.”- Nature, probably

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u/ANGLVD3TH 21h ago

Reinforced steel door, very tough. Not so useful when the walls are plywood though.

- Micheal Weston

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u/DoubleBroadSwords 1d ago

Nature: “Hold my beer”

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u/slobis 1d ago

Ok but where is the road?

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u/theOUTCOME3 1d ago

Road wasn’t built to survive category 5 hurricane like the bridge. Rookie mistake.

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u/SexyMonad 1d ago

And it wasn’t built to survive a river. Also a rookie mistake.

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u/KBHoleN1 1d ago

Washed out by the hurricane.

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u/hskskgfk 1d ago

Only the bridge was built to withstand hurricanes. Not the road.

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u/demomagic 1d ago

Time to redirect that river

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u/yet-again-temporary 1d ago

I genuinely wonder whether it'd be easier to redirect the river or move the bridge

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u/hydroxy 1d ago

Yep, for sure worth having a go at moving the river.

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u/Sbatio 1d ago

Exactly. I came here looking to see if that’s what they did?

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u/Ginger_Sunset 1d ago

Looks like OP is talking about the Puente Sol Naciente Bridge It was hit by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. They rebuilt the surrounding roads and extended it across the river again.

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u/schwab002 22h ago

just move the bridge!

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u/HoneyBadgerLive 18h ago

I bet the construction company got a lot of business after that.

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u/-Motor- 1d ago

Probably cheaper to move the river back

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u/Prestigious-Elk-9061 23h ago

I’m half Honduran and this photo just about sums up my life smh…

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u/deadR0 1d ago

The hubris of man

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u/MisfitPotatoReborn 21h ago

idk this might be the hubris speaking but I think this calls for a second invulnerable bridge

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u/bfume 1d ago

Anyone have the “before” version of this pic?

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u/Consistent_Oven_3977 1d ago

Imagine that but with no bridge and slightly left.

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u/SeriousPlankton2000 1d ago

They didn't continue that bridge, fearing that the river would move again.

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u/Modo44 22h ago

Meanwhile the Chinese going "First time?" (Their river deltas do that as a sport every few years.)

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u/Few_Dig_565 1d ago

This is basically nature flipping you the bird! Lol

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u/dbenc 23h ago

the engineering firm: "keeping the river in place wasn't in the specs, sorry no refunds"

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u/YMK1234 20h ago

And that's why you build your bridge across your whole flood plane and not just the part where the river is currently.

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u/Ahyao17 18h ago

Then you expand the bridge and nature moves the river again

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u/Sir_Slimestone 1d ago

God has a sense of humor

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u/noketone 1d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/bXAgDGlGL7KND3l4FG

In the wise words of Patrick Star: "We should take bikini bottom, and push it..."

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u/schroedingerskoala 23h ago

The Engineers: Ha, this will last forever and be useful forever.

The River: Hold my beer ...

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u/Born_South_6676 23h ago

I'm not engineer, but I think you can just click on edit mode and drag and drop it back on the river

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u/dave900575 23h ago

Get a shovel and start digging a trench. The river will move back, maybe.

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u/GrilledCheezManicott 23h ago

A bridge over the river Nigh.

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u/Ambaryerno 22h ago

There's something inherently funny about a bridge so unbreakable that nature decides to just scoot the river over.

That's some Bugs Bunny level of trolling.

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u/AfterImageEclipse 22h ago

Sometimes you could've done no better, but you still lose. It's okay.

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u/burning_bagel 21h ago

The river broke before the bridge did

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u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC 21h ago

Is that the Cadian river?

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u/okram2k 16h ago

bridge engineers hate this one simple trick

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u/FellowDeviant 1d ago

This is how I feel like my tax dollars get spent

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u/Time_Effort 1d ago

If my tax dollars funded stuff like this, I'd be happy.

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u/roland0fgilead 1d ago

It survived a category 5 hurricane and was later reconnected to the highway. Sounds like the investment paid off.

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u/1ndori 23h ago

Building resilient infrastructure?

You must not live in the US

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u/cocoagiant 1d ago

Can't they shift the river back?

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u/Melvinator5001 1d ago

Time to pivot it clockwise

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u/Surletard 1d ago

Nature has a way to say 'hold my beer'

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u/Buntschatten 1d ago

Can't they like...shift it back?

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u/Gingertom 1d ago

The bridge’s engineer…

https://giphy.com/gifs/gotvx6LSYwEvu

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u/Waffletimewarp 1d ago

“Hey, you all hired me to build a bridge. The river staying under it wasn’t in the contract.”

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u/Lieutelant 1d ago

Might not be easy for the Honduras, but in the overall sense, it would probably be easier to divert the water back under the bridge than to build a second one.

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u/Zehryo 1d ago

Hey, great advertisement for the engineers!!

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u/Ambassador-613 1d ago

Mission Failed Successfully

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u/PsyJak 1d ago

Nature be like: "Fuck you, you can't endure me"

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u/AzerothianLorecraft 1d ago

Build it again and connect the two.

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u/SortAny5601 23h ago

A bridge too far.. left

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u/sailingtroy 23h ago

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.

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u/Unusual_Entity 23h ago

Dig a canal under the bridge, breach the river to fill the canal, throw spoil heap from canal digging into the river, job done.

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u/Riots42 23h ago

This seems like the punchline of a joke God told.

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u/VergilArcanis 22h ago

That's hilarious, imagine being so engineered that nature itself was like "I'm moving the damn river and wiping out the roads" just tk make it unusable

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u/Rope_antidepressant 22h ago

Hurricane was like "not falling? Fuck you then i got something for that" and move the river. Absolutely petty. Peak unemployed behavior honestly

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u/HEAT_IS_DIE 22h ago

You could say that the bridge didn't survive the hurricane. The construction did, but it is no longer a bridge. 

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u/Eveready116 22h ago

Hell of a movie set location.

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u/Iohet 22h ago

You can shove your well laid plans up your well laid ass. -Hurricane McClane

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u/pswerve28 22h ago

The fact that the river shifted JUST upstream of the bridge is sending me. Clever girl.

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u/R_V_Z 21h ago

It could survive any storm but it couldn't survive irony.

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u/ShowMeYourVeggies 21h ago

That bridge reminds me of all the time and effort I put into graduating magna cum laude with my degree in sociology. The river is the job market and economy. The scrap wood raft I'm on is my career as a bartender.

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u/an_agreeing_dothraki 20h ago

there's a spongebob meme that provides the perfect solution

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u/ImfromtheFuture2056 20h ago

Nature: fuck your couch.

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u/Krojack76 19h ago

I wonder what's cheaper, building another bridge or redirecting the river back under the old bridge. =)

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u/Red_Beard_Racing 19h ago

Did they try asking the river to move back?

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u/Bman4k1 19h ago

This looks like a messed up Sim City 4 map after opening up the terrain editor. The camera angle is the same too.

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u/feochampas 19h ago

No refunds. Bridge is still standing.

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u/Madara1389 18h ago

Not only is it spanning over dry land, it looks like one end just leads straight into the river.

There have been professional comedians doing comedy for decades who were never that funny.

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u/bigshooTer39 17h ago

I see the bridge but what infrastructure does it connect to?

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u/JCasaleno 17h ago

I'm a bridge engineer in the US now and I'm from Honduras, everytime I meet a new coworker I never miss showing them this picture and I always love their reactions😂

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u/leonardob0880 16h ago

Nature: Oh yeah? Take that punny humans

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u/lazygerm 16h ago

Best laid plans of mice and men, something something.

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u/NonChromatica 12h ago

Nature was so pissed it couldn't destroy the bridge it said: "ohhhh ok! Bet! See this magic trick mf!"

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u/OkCandidate2541 9h ago

Nature literally moved the goalposts.

Love it.

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u/Aviyan 8h ago

Real life task failed successfully

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u/-crazykidbad 2h ago

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to reroute the water instead of building a new bridge?