Dennis McIntosh remembers when the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed in 1970.

McIntosh was in primary school about a kilometre away from the site on October 15 when a 2,000-tonne section of the under-construction bridge collapsed, killing 35 workers.

It is considered Australia's worst industrial disaster and led to the establishment of workplace safety measures that were enshrined in law 15 years later.

In the months leading up to the tragedy, a similar bridge designed by the same company had collapsed in Wales, killing four workers. Rumours began to swirl at McIntosh's school that the West Gate Bridge would also fall.

"I remember the day it collapsed like it was yesterday," he says.

"When [the bridge] did fall, we heard it. We heard the thud … [I remember] looking through t

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