text: One of the worst disasters caused by stress corrosion cracking was the fall of the Silver Bridge, WV in 1967, when a single brittle crack formed by rusting grew to criticality. The crack was on one of the tie bar links of one of the suspension chains, and the whole joint failed quickly by overload. The event escalated and the whole bridge disappeared in less than a minute, killing 46 drivers or passengers on the bridge at the time.