The Tacoma Narrows Bridge |
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A Bridge to the Mainland
In July of 1940, a suspension bridge opened connecting Gig Harbor and the Olympic Peninsula to the mainland. Just 4 months later, the grand bridge lay at the bottom of the Puget Sound, a victim of "torsional oscillations" resulting from high winds. Soon after it opened, the bridge garnered the nickname "Galloping Gertie". During heavy winds, the bridge would twist and sway, often wildly. Finally, on November 7th, at approximately 11:00 a.m., just 4 months and 7 days after it's completion, Galloping Gertie twisted apart in heavy winds and is now resting at the bottom of the Puget Sound. An eye-witness account of Galloping Gertie's demise was graphically provided by Leonard Coatsworth, a Tacoma newspaper editor: "Just as I drove past the towers, the bridge began to sway violently from side to side. Before I realized it, the tilt became so violent that I lost control of the car... I jammed on the brakes and got out, only to be thrown onto my face against the curb." "Around me I could hear concrete cracking. I started to get my dog Tubby, but I was thrown again before I could reach the car. The car itself began to slide from side to side of the roadway." "On hands and knees most of the time, I crawled 500 yards or more to the towers... My breath was coming in gasps; my knees were raw and bleeding, my hands bruised and swollen from gripping the concrete curb... Toward the last, I risked rising to my feet and running a few yards at a time... Safely back at the toll plaza, I saw the bridge in its final collapse and saw my car plunge into the Narrows." The cause of the spectacular bridge failure is still debated in engineering classes throughout the world. A new bridge was not completed for another 10 years, in 1950. It seems to be doing much better. The sunken remains of "Galloping Gertie" were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 to protect her from salvagers. |
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This photograph shows the twisting motion of the center span just prior to failure. |
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When the twisting motion was at the maximum, elevation of the sidewalk at the right was 28 feet higher than the sidewalk at the left. |
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This photograph actually caught the first failure shortly before 11:00 a.m. as the first chunck of concrete dropped out of the roadway. |
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A few minutes after the first piece of concrete fell, this 600 foot section broke out of the suspension span, turning upside down as it crashed in Puget Sound. The square object in mid-air (near the center of the photograph) is a 25 foot section of concrete pavement. Notice the car in the top right corner. |
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This photograph shows the sag in the east span after the failure. With the centre span gone there was nothing to counter balance the weight of the side spans. The sag was 45 feet. |
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This picture was taken shortly after the failure. |
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NetWorks Real Estate, LLC
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