section_path: Bridge failures
section_name: Bridge failures
paragraph_text: Bridge failures
  
  The failure of bridges is of special concern for structural engineers in trying to learn lessons vital to bridge design, construction and maintenance.
  
  The failure of bridges first assumed national interest in Britain during the Victorian era when many new designs were being built, often using new materials, with some of them failing catastrophically.
  
  In the United States, the National Bridge Inventory tracks the structural evaluations of all bridges, including designations such as "structurally deficient" and "functionally obsolete".