 It is September 2001, and the disaster has hit the United States, but it isn't the one that you might be thinking of. Granted, today's subject has been overshadowed by another certain event, but it is no less tragic. Yes, the death toll is lower, but the collapse of a bridge in Texas would bear a similarity to several other disasters. Highlighting that history is doomed to repeat itself and that bridges over waterways are quite often poorly protected. Today we're looking at the September 15th 2001 Queen Isabella Causeway collapse. Background. Our story starts all the way back in 1974 with the opening of the Queen Isabella Causeway, the bridge that was built to connect Port Isabel to South Padre Island. The island is a nature reserve and is largely a tourist attraction, but it does have a small population. By the time the bridge was built, around 300 people called the small strip of barrier land with Laguna Madre to the rear and the Gulf of Mexico in the front home. The island had only been occupied since roughly 1964 and the new bridge was actually a replacement for an earlier crossing, rather confusingly also called the Queen Isabella Causeway. The original crossing involved a wooden causeway and a swing bridge. This allowed the mainland to connect the South Padre Island and Long Island, not that one. It had been opened in July 1954 and by August of the same year, 73,000 vehicles had paid the toll to cross to the island. Anywho, the new bridge was built about half a mile north of the old one, with a long curve designed to help the structure withstand hurricanes. State Highway 100 was extended to the new bridge location through the business district of Port Isabel and in the process, several buildings were demolished. The four-lane causeway was built as the longest bridge in Texas, well at least at the time. It spanned over 15,000 feet across the bay, boasted a width of 68 feet and a top of deck height of 78 feet above mean high tide at the center of the main span. It was constructed of 147 80-foot pre-stressed concrete spans with a steel cantilever main beam in the center span. Under this main span, runs a shipping channel. Now the area is a bit of a shipping junction of sorts and as such vessels in the area take a rather strange route near the causeway. Shipping can come to the causeway from two directions, from the north and from the south. But when looking at a map, the southern approach isn't exactly the way you might think. You see, shipping is directed along a section of channel locally known as the Y. This is an upside down Y shape, which is at the southern tip of Long Island, not that one. The channel is roughly 12 feet deep. Say you're coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, you must travel west until you get to Long Island, and again, not that one. From there you can go two ways, straight ahead, continuing west along the ship channel towards Brownsville. If you want to go towards the intercoastal waterway to the north, then you turn north at the Y and navigate the channel behind Long Island, not that one. This section of waterway is called the S-curve, for kind of obvious reasons when you see it on a map. At the end of the S-curve, vessels are now in line with navigating under the Queen Isabella Causeway to help with guidance boys are provided. It's the same way you would go if you were coming from Brownsville towards the intercoastal waterway. Although guided towards the correct approach to pass under the biggest span of the Causeway, several allusions have occurred since 1974, but nothing too catastrophic. The bridge was inspected regularly and was being strengthened by applying metallic coating to some of the supporting bent, a trial on the bridge which had started in 1996. I want to talk about 1996, we have to mention a plane crash. On the 13th of August 1996, at roughly 20 past six in the evening, a Cessna TR-182 crashed into the Causeway. The plane had been successfully flown under the bridge and was going in for another go. However, the small aircraft collided with one of the concrete supports and plunged into the water, killing both pilot and pilot rated passenger. It later turned out that the pilot in command was intoxicated, which isn't very surprising. Although pretty dramatic, plane crashes were not the biggest danger to the bridge, it was and always would be from shipping. And that would be the case on the 15th of September 2001, the disaster. It is the 14th of September 2001 and the still-hold towing vessel named MV Brownwater number 5, built in 1978 and owned by Brownwater Marine Services of Rockport, Texas is in the port of Brownsville. The day is filled with refuelling, minor repairs and marshalling its barges for a trip in the evening. The crew make up today is of five men consisting of three deck hands, one captain and a relief captain. The two captains are the ones who hold the license to operate the vessel. The Brownwater number five was to push four barges this evening and they're loaded with steel with one of the barges loaded with phosphates. The tug and its cargo leave Brownsville port around roughly 9pm and start to head down the Brownsville shipping channel. Captain Rocky Lee Wilson is at the controls with the relief captain asleep. A crew changeover took place roughly about 12 midnight, roughly nine miles from Long Island and yes I know it's not that one. From 12 the man at the controls is Captain David D. Fowler. Captain Wilson then sleeps in his quarters below. This evening in the wheelhouse accompanying Fowler is one of the deck hands but due to nothing too exciting being planned the captain has allowed his assistant to sleep. However Fowler can still wake him up if needed. The Brownwater number five reaches the Y shipping area at roughly 1am and begins to navigate up the S-curve shipping lane towards the Long Island swing bridge. Logged with indicate that the vessel reached a swing at 1.45 in the morning on the 15th of September. Passing through the swing bridge is around 15 minutes before getting to the Queen Isabella causeway. As the Brownwater five left the protection of the island the current started pushing the heavy barges in a northwesterly direction. Captain Fowler was not aware of the current and hadn't prepared for it as such the head of the tow was pushed north west away from the channel. The vessel was also being affected by another current pushing north east from the S channel behind it. The vessel was being pushed in two different directions essentially turning the MV Brownwater off course. It then bumped its hull on the shallows next to the channel. Captain Fowler was no longer in control and was being pushed westwards towards the causeway. The barges and the MV Brownwater five collided with the Queen Isabella causeway support columns traveling at roughly 0.2 of a mile an hour. The impact zone was roughly 375 feet west of the channel. The sheer weight of the vessel battered the bridge. Three 80 foot sections of the bridge disappeared into the water. The bridge was now incomplete and in the darkness almost impossible to spot for road users. Nine vehicles were plunged into the dark waters of the Laguna Madre. Eleven people were in the cars of which eight would not survive. The victims were Robert Harris, Hector Martinez, Harpoon Barry Welch, Chelsea Welch, Julio Mirolez, Robin Livell, Stefan Rivas and Gaspar Inosa. After the collision Captain Fowler frantically tried to warn road users of the collapsed bridge with the vessel's thousand watt spotlight but sadly it had little effect. The first rescuers on the scene were local fishermen who tried to pull survivors from the wreckage of concrete mangled vehicles in the water. Initially it was thought it was a terrorist attack, bearing in mind that this was just a few days after the Twin Towers but no it was just a good old tragic series of events. The bridge not only represented the only method of transport off South Padre Island but also the small community's only supply of water and power. Residents would be isolated for over two months having to rely on a hastily set up ferry service. The repair works would require the replacement of three spans as well as an additional two more sections which although had not collapsed had become severely damaged. A $12 million fibre optic driver warning system was installed as part of the refurbishment. The bridge would see traffic again on the 21st November 2001 and two years after the collapse the causeway would be renamed to Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge in memory of its victims. But although a local tragedy the root cause of the accident still had to be ascertained. The US Coast Guard would head up the investigation to how the MV Brownwater 5 and more specifically the person at the controls got it so wrong. The investigation. The S-Benz section of the channel was known to be a tricky section of water to navigate and as such it was essential to be properly prepared. The US Coast Guard interviewed several mariners who navigated the channel quite regularly and the results were not great for Fowler. Expert witnesses stated that the current could be predicted before exiting the S-Curve by observing the current in the channel itself. The other captain aboard Rocky Wilson stated that when he navigated near the causeway he called the Long Island Swing Bridge operator for a current report as well as observed the whale of water was flowing around the boys in the area. Another captain was called as a witness who had navigated the channel just a few hours ahead of the MV Brownwater and he stated that he contacted other vessels in the area for their opinion on the currents. All of these things Fowler failed to do. The approach to the bridge was deemed adequate in the way it was properly marked. The tug itself was deemed safe and the weather wasn't too treacherous. The cause was nothing but that of the person at the controls. Although Captain Fowler would dispute this when a few years after the disaster he would actually try and sue the tugboat owners. The US Coast Guard report was so damning that it even recommended criminal charges be brought against Fowler. A dive into Fowler's past was also something to be concerned about. Coast Guard records showed the accident to be Fowler's second bridge strike and third grounding in 13 months. The disaster shows along with the sunshine bridge collapse and the I-40 bridge disaster that just a momentary lapse of judgement can result in so much death and destruction. This is a plain difficult production. All videos on the channel are created by myself, John, and are Creative Commons Attribution Share alike licensed. All videos are produced in a currently wet corner of London, UK. I'd like to thank my Patreon members and YouTube members for your financial support. If you'd like to check out this outro song in its full glory then you can on my second channel made by John. If you want to get updates on future videos then you can on my Twitter account and all that's left to say is thank you for watching.