On the hot, summer day of August 21, 1947, a thunderstorm hit the Columbus area that would produce a memorable and tragic event. A bolt of lightning struck the southwestern corner of the Broad Street Bridge in Downtown. Perhaps because of the extreme heat or structural deficiencies, the lightning caused part of the bridge to seemingly explode, and large chunks of the bridge collapsed into the Scioto River. While no cars fell off the bridge as a result, 4 pedestrians did. One of those pedestrians died the following day from sustained injuries. The bridge itself had been built as the replacement for the one destroyed during the great flood of 1913. After the incident in 1947, the bridge was repaired and continued to serve as the main Scioto River crossing at Downtown for another 43 years. In 1990, it was demolished and replaced by the current (and very similar looking) Discovery Bridge, completed in 1992 in time for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the “discovery” of America by the city’s namesake, Christopher Columbus.

The damaged bridge.