Siberia, 1907: The Bridge Gave Way, and the Itala Kept Going

Siberia, summer 1907. The Itala is halfway across an old wooden bridge when the planks give way under its back end.

The car drops in backward. It tips up on its tail, goes down into the stream, and turns over in a storm of broken beams. Aboard are Prince Scipione Borghese, his mechanic Ettore Guizzardi at the wheel, and the journalist Luigi Barzini.

They are weeks into a dare. A Paris newspaper asked whether anyone would drive a car from Peking to Paris. Five cars took it on and left Peking on June 10. Camels went ahead to leave fuel along the route, and the route followed the telegraph lines so the reporters could file their stories. Across Mongolia and the Gobi there was hardly a road at all.

Siberia was supposed to be easier. The old military road had been left to rot once the railway was built, and its bridges with it.

Now all three men climb out of the wreck alive. They get the Itala back up onto the road. The engine is unhurt.

So they keep going. Across Siberia, into Russia, then on through Europe.

On August 10, 1907, 61 days after leaving Peking, the Itala rolls into Paris first. Crowds and bicycles close in around it in the street.

The car is still around. It sits in the national automobile museum in Turin.

What is the sketchiest bridge or crossing you ever put a vehicle across, and what made you trust it?