The Most Expensive Mistakes In Modern History
We all have made mistakes, pretty much every day we may forget to do one thing or another. But there are some mistakes that are so expensive, they have made history. From misaligned bridges to misspelling costing millions, here are the most expensive mistakes in recent history.
11 An Apple Very Expensive Now
Living in the age of technology where we can call anyone in the world for free has its advantages. Even though many things failed to get to where we are at now. Apple is a great example of a very expensive mistake made by Ronal Wayne who was one of apple’s founders. Ronal is responsible for the first iconic logo and the writing of the apple I manual. But although he is smart, he unfortunately did not have the foresight of Steve Jobs or Steve Wosniak. Fearing a potential bankruptcy, in 1976, Ronal Wayne sold his 10% of the company for 800 UDS. If he would have kept it. His shares would be worth about 80Billion now!
10 The Most Expensive Trash!
Who has not misplaced the parking lot ticket to get the car of the lot or even threw i-n the washer a lottery ticket worth some cash…. But how about misplacing millions of British pounds! Englishman James Howell had purchased bitcoins in 2009 when the digital currency was very cheap. Fast-forwarding to 2013, James discovered that his investment had paid of incredibly, he could now retire and live on his own island if he wanted. But dread hit like a rock! He realized that the hard drive that had his digital 7.5 million worth of bitcoins was thrown away… never to be recovered again… What’s stories have you heard of people finding thrown away treasures?
9 The New Jersey Grant Writen Wrong!
There are so many grants available to many organizations, anything from animal rescue grants to an entire state asking for school grants. There are even courses teaching you how to write grants perfectly. You would think the grant was done right specially if the New Jersey state office did it. Well, not so fast. In 2010, the state of New Jersey applied for the Race To the Top Grant giving the school system billions of dollars to improve state schools. In the final rounds, New Jersey was disqualified due to a tiny line on the form that was filled wrong. The filled document used the 2008 state education budget instead of the 2009… there went the 400 million dollars…
8 Cost of Oil: Wildlife Pays The Price
Driving during winter is dangerous. There are deer on the road licking the salt and its very hard to see them or even stop on ice. And how easy is to mess up if there is any alcohol involved. Well, one of the worst mistakes ever made could have been prevented… The extra oz.s of alcohol by the captain of the Exxon Valdez may have been to blame. In 1989 The oil tanker bound to California from Alaska crashed, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil on the ocean damaging the fragile marine wildlife not to mention the cost of cleanup and tourism. Even a decade after the incident, there were traces of oil found.
7 The “Wobbly” Millennium Bridge
Engineering and art have been merging to make structures that are masterpieces and engineering marbles. One structure that made the news in June 2000 for its beauty and extreme danger was the Millennium footbridge in London. The first pedestrian bridge built over the Thames river in over 100 years this “pure expression of Engineering structure” had to be shut down right after its opening. The bridge was built with “lateral suspensions” so no tall supporting structures were needed. But what the engineers did not account for was the large amounts of people who used it making the bridge sway and twist. Needless to say, the structure had to be modified and improved. The Millennium bridge is now stable yet the nickname the “wobbly” Bridge still remains.
6 The Challenger Explosion & The Seal
In 1986 the world had their hopes up for the Space Shuttle Challenger launching from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex. Ready to explore space as the 25th mission of the USA space shuttle program. But 73 seconds after the take of, the entire world watched in horror as it disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of Florida. The culprit for the failure was not structural or a big issue... in fact it was a faulty O-ring that did not seal one of the joints… Tha seal, not only did it cost 7 lives but the estimate cost of the damage was 5.5 billion dollars and 32 months of suspension of the shuttle program.
5 The Lifesaving Bacteria That Never Was
How would self-replenishing fertilizers change the world? In Australia the government founded lab was very close to finding the answer to how the bacterium rhizobia could deliver nitrogen directly back to the soil and act as a self-replenishing fertilizer. After many years, the research was showing promising results and the culture of this very rare specimen was finally starting to prosper. During a repair of the building facility in 2006, a contractor briefly unplugged some refrigerators and use the plugs to do his work. Unaware of the failure of the refrigerators to restart, couple of days later the lab workers started noticing a nasty smell coming form the units. The bacteria that was destined to save the world was destroyed...
4 The Wide Wagons Through Paris
When trying to blend old and new, there could be unmeasurable mistakes specially if the sizes don’t match. In France, the (national Society of French Railways) wanted to modernize the train wagons and ordered 2,000 new trains! This would have revolutionized the transportation and would have added more wagons for the commuter trains. But what the government fail to account for was that the older train stations where narrower. The 15 billion Euros project became 65 billion euros as they had to widened the platforms.
3 The Sinking Spanish Submarine
The first thing you learn about swimming is floating. If you cannot float, you have a problem. And same thing with submarines. There have to be some air chambers somewhere so the submarine could surface after immersion. But Spain did not account for any of that. After 1.75 billion pounds where invested. It was discovered that the submarine weighted a little over 70 tons more than estimated. At the beginning of the project, a decimal was misplaced during the original calculations. This mathematical slip had to be fixed and the Isaac Pearl ended up costing 9 million lb. more and 3 years to rectify it!
2 Collapsing Buildings
Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, those are usually the culprits of buildings collapsing. But unfortunately, there are times when human error does the knock-out. The lotus Riverside residential complex in Shanghai, China, fell victim to noncompliance in the construction causing it to tip over and unearth the poor-quality foundation of the 13th story high building. It truly was a miracle that be building did not land over the other towers nearby. But there are more cases like the Lotus. In 2013, Medellin Colombia the residential complex “Space” collapsed its 6th tower due to The poor quality of the full structure of the foundation and total building and therefore the entire building crumbled to the ground.
1 Non-Matching Ends of the Bridge
There are projects that begin on each end of the sides and meet in the middle seamlessly. This is one is the most iconic construction fails in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2012 the new Inner Belt Bridge, does not line up with the bridge support by 3 feet. Fortunately, the mistake only costed time. A colossal bridge fail was a collapsed section of a bridge over the Han River in Seoul, Korea. In 1994 a section of the bridge fell into the river during rush hour. The cause of the terrible mistake included poorly welded steel structure.
