Five years ago, a Port Authority bus was at the center of a large sinkhole in downtown Pittsburgh, attracting nationwide attention and becoming an enduring meme. On October 28, 2019, the infamous incident occurred on 10th Street when the ground abruptly fell beneath the stationary bus, as detailed by WTAE. This unexpected event occurred as the city was turned into "Monday Night Football," almost creating an uncanny juxtaposition of the ordinary moving alongside the extraordinary.
Not only did the sinkhole become the subject of internet humor, inspiring Halloween costumes and Christmas ornaments, but it also highlighted the egregious infrastructure woes faced by Pittsburgh and, by extension, the United States. According to Audacy, the bus became a bizarre emblem of these systemic issues. The cost of resolving this bizarre scene was around $88,000, and parts of 10th Street were shuttered nearly a year after the collapse.
Remarkably, the bus was prevented from plunging into the sinkhole fully thanks to underground power lines that propped its rear end in the air. Despite being a spectacle for social media, the situation clearly and imminently displayed the decaying infrastructure.
