In the Military there is a long standing tradition that you do not march soldiers over a bridge in step. When marching and approaching a bridge the command of Route Step, MARCH is given. This command keeps the soldiers marching in formation, but every soldier is allowed to march at her/his own step. Although this is widely practiced in the Army, I found very few who knew the reason why.

What could have possibly prompted this tradition?

I am absolutely sure of this answer

I saw it on mythbusters (discovery wed 9pm) that the reason they did not march in time was that if the soldiers marched in precision then they would be putting a tremendous amount of stress on the bridge every single time they stepped (since they march in time) and that would be enought to damage the bridge since all the soldiers wieight would be foucused on 1 side of the brodge at 1 momont

However, this myth was proved false on the show so dont fret about it

Posted by Andy on 2005-05-07 18:43:40