The Minneapolis bridge disaster reminded me of one of my favorite poems, Kipling's Hymn of the Breaking Strain. (It's of course ultimately not really about bridges, which is why I only said "reminded me.") Here is the opening stanza:

The careful text-books measure
(Let all who build beware)
The load, the shock, the pressure
Material can bear.
So, when the buckled girder
Lets down the grinding span,
The blame of loss, or murder,
Is laid upon the man.
Not on the Stuff -- the Man.