The Tacoma Narrows Bridge

[Chas]

Not sure if there was ever a thread dedicated to this- but the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, at it's completion was the third largest bridge of it's kind in the world, had a design flaw. It liked to catch the wind.

Known as "Galloping Gertie", the bridge took off on November 7th, 1940 and collapsed into Puget Sound. The only fatality was a pet dog, who wouldn't leave the car you see on the middle span in the video.

[video=youtube;IqK2r5bPFTM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqK2r5bPFTM&feature=related[/video]

[video=youtube;P0Fi1VcbpAI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI&feature=related[/video]

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

We had to watch that several times while I was in the College of Engineering at Illinois. Great show on what happens if you don't take everything into account.

Later