Story in those rivets

Regarding the condition of the metal It's kind of like a superfund site - one never knows if one of these infrastructures is safe or known to be not safe but never closed or maintained. A bridge along part of Interstate 95, which carries tremendous commuting traffic to NYC daily, was known to be at risk, but it fell into the river. It was the middle of the night so the tragedy was minimized. Regarding a story in those rivets - The story of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis was one of some weakness (caused by a design flaw) resulting in "a too-thin gusset plate ripped along a line of rivets... Interestingly, around here we all get upset by the traffic delays when two lanes of each span of the Delaware Memorial Bridge ( a pretty big piece of infrastructure) is closed daily to facilitate the maintenance of those towers. Well, I rather am glad someone is actually looking after such things. It is a toll bridge, so tax dollars aren't wasted on mere maintenance as was the main reason maintenance wasn't pulled on the Connecticut bridge back in the day. Oh yes, neat photograph, nicely done and a perfect complement to the remarks of Tony's. I do think, though that those "rivets" in "bigfoot" are actually "bolts". I don't think rivets would be an appropriate fastener between two thick chunks of steel as this. (I just looked back at your Rivertown photo and those are clearly nuts and bolts.)

Yup, they're definitely bolts, but I ran w/ the rivet. I look at some of the infrastructure rotting & am furious at the spending on pet hobby horse projects. 'Makes me think whoever said democracies don't die from external forces, they die of suicide - was on to something. 'Nothing new, I'm sure.

There is no sign of any of those rivets having popped, so as such a clean down of the rust and a repainting of the steelwork should extend the life of the bridge. I'm sure the bridge is regularly inspected from a safety point of view.

Yes, those are rivets. And, they used to put them in hot. That way they were slightly more malleable, and, when they cooled, they shrunk and pulled the structure tighter together. I think everything is welded today - certainly faster and cheaper, and fine if done right.