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The Millennium Bridge is closing for three weeks for urgent maintenance works. Here, MailOnline reveals the science behind the unusual phenomenon.

You may have experienced an unsettling amount of swaying and wobbling if youve been on a bridge with large numbers of pedestrians traveling over it at the same time. Now, we have a fascinating new explanation for what causes this worrying movement

The theory that bridge swaying is caused by people falling into step with each other, causing a synchronised pendulum effect, has been dismissed by researchers at Georgia State University.

Researchers have a new explanation for why pedestrian bridges wobble and sway: Too many people are crossing at once and simply trying not to fall over.

The pedestrian crossing over the Thames River, between Tate Modern and St. Paul’s Cathedral, opened in June 2000, with thousands lining up to walk it.

The Millennium Bridge Each pedestrian added to the bridge provides negative damping on average, without synchronising their footsteps to all the

Scientists at Heriot-Watt University say traffic vibrations on bridges like the Queensferry Crossing could power sensors that monitor its safety FOR more than 100 years engineers have been trying to solve the problem of movement on rail and road bridges. Traffic and wind regularly cause low frequency vibrations to ripple through bridge building materials such as steel and concrete.  Now, a team of Scots engineers are hoping the oscillations caused by heavy traffic at peak times could ac...