Bridge collapse dumps rail cars into Yellowstone River

Officials tested water from part of the Yellowstone River for hazardous chemicals on Sunday after a train wreck on Saturday. A bridge collapsed near Columbus, Mont., and plunged rail cars carrying hot asphalt and molten sulfur into the river. Local officials said no one was killed or injured as a result of the wreck. Officials added that the asphalt and sulfur would likely solidify upon contact with water and were unlikely to float far downstream.

Why did the bridge fail? Robert Bea, a former professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said it is possible that water flow exerted immense force on the bridge’s supports and triggered the collapse. The Montana Department of Transportation in 2021 had an old highway bridge that paralleled the railroad bridge removed. It said the bridge was in imminent danger of collapse.

Dig deeper: Listen to Carolina Lumetta’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about a train derailment near East Palestine, Ohio.