Cork's Shakey Bridge goes viral as 1.2m watch video shot by YouTube star Tom Scott

Scott boasts 5m subscribers on his YouTube channel and his videos have been viewed over 1.1bn times

Cork's Shakey Bridge. Picture Denis Minihane.

The landmark 'shakey bridge' in Cork has gone viral globally after being featured in a video by YouTube star Tom Scott.

His four-minute video showcasing the restoration of the protected Daly’s Bridge and how engineers ensured its signature shake was retained, has racked up a staggering 1.2m views since it was uploaded to one of his channels on Monday.

Titled ‘the bridge that must legally wobble’, it was also among the top 30 trending videos on YouTube on Tuesday.

UK-based Scott, who boasts almost five million YouTube subscribers, and whose educational and informational public videos have been viewed over 1.1bn times, featured the bridge on what is understood to have been his first video shoot in Ireland.

A report in 2017 revealed the extent of corrosion on the near century-old bridge and warned that without urgent repairs, it could collapse within three years. The bridge was dismantled in 2019 and restored and conserved over the next two years or so.

In his video, Scott explained how engineers used accelerometers pre-restoration to measure its rate of shake, and afterwards to show how it had retained its shake.

The data showed that the bridge shook up and down at a rate of around 2.3 cycles a second before the work and at around 2.2 cycles a second afterward.

He filmed himself walking on the restored bridge deck and was happy to confirm: ‘Yes, it’s bouncy!’ 

He added: “It would have been entirely possible using modern technology and materials to build an identical-looking bridge that was much more stable.

“Normally that’s what engineers do, they try to damp down vibrations. But in this one case, their job was to keep things the same.

“Fixing the shake would not have been preservation.

“The goal here was to repair this bridge so that it can survive and shake the residents of Cork for another century to come.” 

Cllr. Kieran McCarthy watching the last section of the Shakey Bridge being installed and linking the Mardyke and Sundays Well in Cork. File Picture: Dan Linehan

He also interviewed local independent city councillor and historian, Kieran McCarthy, who featured prominently in coverage in this newspaper in recent years, leading calls for the repair and restoration work.

He said he didn’t realise just how famous or influential Scott was until he was being interviewed by him.

“I get calls and emails all the time about being interviewed for videos and I thought nothing really about going down to the bridge to meet him,” Mr McCarthy said.

“But as we were standing there chatting, within the first 20-minutes or so, a load of teenagers came over to chat to him.

“It was amazing really. They were stunned to see him in Cork, filming the bridge.

“Several of us, engineers, local councillors, local media, promoted the story of the bridge until we got funding for the repairs, and now someone with this huge international social media presence has recognised that.

“The fact that it’s had over one million views in just 24-hours is incredible and shows that there is a world out there that many of us of an older generation have never tapped into."