late on 18 january, the main railway station in berlin suffered from major structural damage. a two-ton girder fell from a height of , damaging an outside stairwell. the station was completely evacuated, as glass plates from the façade were coming loose and falling to the pavement below. on the early afternoon of 19 january, the station was opened to the public again. discussion started as to whether the eight-month-old station was suffering from design failures, but these claims were rejected by both deutsche bahn and the architect. the girders provide no means of structural support and are, for architectural reasons, only lying on small supports similar to a shelf and not permanently fixed in place. the db claimed that it will address the problem by welding additional supports in front of the girders, and that they would close the station at winds exceeding 8 bft (> ) until the problem was resolved. on the afternoon of 21 january 2007, the station was closed again to the public due to heavy winds at the time. and remained closed until 20:00 cet.