City Room takes a brief tour of the Carleton Laboratory in Columbia University where tension cables for suspension bridges are tested to their limits. Inside their facilities, the lab can stretch, weather, heat, cool, and monitor the world’s largest suspension test cable. The research being done there is funding by the Federal Highway Administration and aims to improve bridges around the nation as well as prevent any disasters from happening. With the extreme testing the lab can simulate about a decade’s worth of use and torture in about 6 months.
