Back in the mid 1970's I had a 'Barbara Karst' in a hanging basket and I kept getting stuck by the thorns so I planted it outside of our screened pool enclosure by the back driveway. There was a very tall steel pole with one of those mercury vapor security lights and that Bougie grew and grew and climbed and covered that entire pole and light. One day we heard an extremely loud crash and ran outside to find the pole on the ground with the light smashed and the Bougainvillea broken completely in half. The steel pole had rusted all the way through and the weight of those thick branches were just too much I guess. That was such a gorgeous plant when in full bloom; we could have dug up and transplanted what was left somewhere else and I'm sure it would have taken off again but we just threw it out.
