2019 was a year of rumors, claims and misinformation online. That’s why we have our VERIFY team working constantly to break down the fact and fiction of what’s going on.
To start 2020, they’re breaking down a viral image you may have seen. It’s misleading, has millions of views, and anyone with a computer could debunk it.
We’re talking about about a bridge. It’s shown up and been viewed more than 5 million times in 2019. It appears to show an incredibly steep bridge, and a lot of comments call it something out of a nightmare.
So, we’re verifying… Is this bridge real? Yes. But it’s not nearly as steep as the photos and videos make it look. It is, however, a great chance to show HOW We VERIFY, because you can do a lot of the steps at home.
First off we zoomed in. The picture gets fuzzy but we see a few things. The cars are driving on the left side of the road. The signs are not in English.
One zoom and we know it’s not in the U.S. Based off the symbols it’s likely in Asia.
So let’s jump to Google. We typed in Asia, Bridge, and Steep, and we immediately get results, First, a 2015 Video of the “Eshima Ohashi bridge”. The bridge in the video matches the one in the image. So pop that name – Eshima Ohashi – into Google Maps, and there’s the bridge.
Notice it doesn’t look nearly as steep.
So that’s the reality. Photos taken up close show the bridge is nowhere near as steep as it seems in the video.
That bridge is called the Eshima Ohashi Bridge and is located in Japan. It connects two cities separated by a lake.
In order to allow ships to pass underneath it, the bridge was designed to be tall. Still, that doesn’t necessitate that it’s incredibly steep as well.
There is a 6.1% gradient on one side of the bridge, and a 5.1% gradient on the other side.
For comparison’s sake, the street that has the Guinness World Record for steepest street has a gradient of 37.45% and the previous record holder isn’t too far behind.
Bottom Line: The video is misleading, and we were able to figure that out in a matter of minutes.
There are a lot of viral videos and misinformation online – but the good news is that there are also a lot of ways to VERIFY them.
Hopefully this shows you a few quick steps YOU can take – but if you find something that doesn’t go this smoothly, shoot us an email and we’ll check it out for you.
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