The most remarkable part of that is that they were willing to risk breaking bridges then broke them then fixed them on their own without being sued into doing so by the municipalities that owned the bridges. It truly was a different time.
Not sure why you're so shocked. This was standard practice back in the day for measuring & testing bridge capacity; you'd build the bridge then drive a bunch of heavy trucks over it until it breaks, then rebuild the bridge. That's just how things were done.
I said it was remarkable though upon reflection I guess that was mostly sarcasm. I guess I mostly wanted to call attention to the fact that that's how things were done back then and that things <gasp> actually got done.
It was a propaganda effort to get funding for road building. (That's what it means when they say the idea was “to develop a through route from coast to coast for motor transport”.)
Breaking bridges helped demonstrate the need.
Fixing bridges avoided lasting negative feelings towards the demonstration that could backfire politically.
