The Deadly 210 Freeway Bridge Collapse

In the early 1970s, the 210 Freeway was being completed in sections. Our little section, running from Ocean View Boulevard to Lowell Avenue, opened in July 1972. In October, contractors were working on a particularly difficult job, the freeway bridge over the Arroyo Seco connecting Pasadena and La Cañada.

It was just after lunch on Oct. 17. The forms were in place for a cement pour on the 580-foot span. Over 100 tons of cement had just been poured into the framework. About 30 men were on the bridge structure when suddenly things started to shift and a loud crack and a rumble was heard. Workmen on each side of the break screamed “Run!” as a 60-foot section in the center began to drop.

One man said later, “I heard it when it began to move and I started to run. It sounded like an earthquake.”

Another man said, “It sounded like thunder.” 

A crew of four were working on the underpinnings of the forms when it gave way. One man in a panic started to run the wrong way but his coworker grabbed him and spun him around. He said later, “I thought I was going to have to jump!” They sprinted to the west side of the bridge but when they got there, only three of them had made it. 

The wet cement, scaffolding and reinforcing steel crashed 90 feet down into the Arroyo taking many workers with it. The rest of the construction crew ran to the ends of the bridge and scrambled down the hillside. They started pulling at the towering heap of debris with claw hammers and their bare hands while the word went out for help. Six men were pulled alive from the wreckage; however, they were seriously injured. Another 15 men pulled out were only mildly injured. As fire crews arrived the rescuers pulled out three dead men. 

A huge crane moved to the debris pile and started to pick up the huge steel beams. They had to move slowly and carefully to prevent more of the bridge structure from collapsing. Rescue workers converged on the scene – firemen, police, forestry crewmen and more construction workers from other areas – over 500 in total.

As darkness fell lights were set up. The contracting company made a list of the survivors in order to determine who was still missing. This was difficult because of the chaos at the scene but that night three men were unaccounted for. Down in the debris pile, the cement had hardened so jackhammers were brought in. Two bodies encased in concrete were freed and the last body was found early the next morning under a pile of wooden framing. In total, six men had died in this tragedy.

Work was stopped on all bridge sections of the 210 Freeway construction. By the following week, state and federal officials had convened to start the process of pointing fingers – and most of them were pointing at the contractor. That company had a record of safety violations and two other bridges it was constructing had previously collapsed. Fingers were also pointed at state agencies that hadn’t followed up on safety violations. It’s not known what, if any, action was taken but there was never any criminal prosecution.

By late November construction resumed on the failed bridge. But the bridge seemed cursed. In February 1973, heavy rain filled Devil’s Gate Dam to overflow the spillway and flood water crashed down into the Arroyo below the bridge. The water rushing under the partially completed construction undermined the footings and the bridge collapsed again, this time with no injuries. That section of the freeway was thus delayed and not opened until 1974.

We all cross that bridge regularly on our daily commutes, not thinking about its deadly history. Last year, a freeway sign was placed on the side of the freeway at the transition to the bridge over the Arroyo to memorialize the tragedy that happened over 50 years ago. It reads Arroyo Seco Victims Memorial Overcrossing. 

Sadly, few remember that collapse and the men who died there.