3.4 Analysis of eye bar 330
One particular broken part was recognised quickly as part of an eye bar. There were 146 eye bars in the original bridge, and they were safety-critical because if broken the main chains could be threatened. The eye bar was identified as being from the top joint in the hanging chain nearest the bank and next to the Ohio tower, one of the two lower bars on the outside of the bridge facing north, upriver (Figure 36). It was assigned the identity number 330. It was 17 m long, 51 mm thick with a shank width of 305 mm. The hole in the end, designed to fit over the pin, was 368 mm in diameter, and the width of each limb beside the hole was about 203 mm (Figure 37).
Figure 36 Critical eye-bar joint on Ohio section of bridge
Figure 37 Structure of critical eye-bar joint