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Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse "Gallopin' Gertie"

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Adventure Bridge Collapse Destination Disaster Engineering Gallopin Gertie Gig Harbor Landmark Log Nature Puget Sound Tacoma Travel Washington
GonzoNugent
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  • Added: 09-Dec-06

Watch the amazing "Gallopin' Gertie" November 7, 1940 video clip.
1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Slender, elegant and graceful, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge stretched like a steel ribbon across Puget Sound in 1940. The third longest suspension span in the world opened on July 1st. Only four months later, the great span's short life ended in disaster. "Galloping Gertie," collapsed in a windstorm on November 7,1940.

The bridge became famous as "the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering history." Now, it's also "one of the world's largest man-made reefs." The sunken remains of Galloping Gertie were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 to protect her from salvagers.

A dramatic tale of failure and success
The story of the failure of the 1940 Narrows Bridge and the success of the Current Narrows Bridge is a great American saga. When Galloping Gertie splashed into Puget Sound, it created ripple effects across the nation and around the world. The event changed forever how engineers design suspension bridges. Gertie's failure led to the safer suspension spans we use today.

  1. Categories: Travel & Outdoors
Comments on

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse "Gallopin' Gertie"

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  • This is a rare case ...

    This is a rare case where the wind happened to be hitting the bridge at its resonant frequency; this is highly unlikely to occur elsewhere, plus safety standards have increased since there.

    By neuraljam [Affiliate User] 1214307415 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • You didn't watch ...

    You didn't watch the whole clip then..?

    By neuraljam [Affiliate User] 1214307324 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • I heard one time ...

    I heard one time there was a dog abandoned in the car left on the bridge. Anyone know if that's true?

    By BigGoogleIsWatching [Affiliate User] 1214299111 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • This was before ...

    This was before they realized how to build safer supsension bridges. We watched a video on it in social studies but I dont remember much except for the guy walking on it.

    By sunsetvideoproject [Affiliate User] 1213989352 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Terrible ! They ...

    Terrible ! They have build many bridges of this type ! Why ??!! And the road was terribly flexible ! ... OK enough time to escape.

    By edgar0001 [Affiliate User] 1213984887 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • omg! if i was in ...

    omg! if i was in that car when the brige shaking, i would thrown up everywhere in car.

    By ChanceyBug7 [Affiliate User] 1213939178 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • so sad to the ...

    so sad to the people who live in other side of the bridge but they stay on other bridge

    By kenchristine [Affiliate User] 1213766476 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • I heard that there ...

    I heard that there was a dog in the car and the guy tried to rescue the dog bit the dog was to busy licking its big fat hairy balls and the guy could not coax the ball licking dog out of the car.

    By tacomadavid68 [Affiliate User] 1213744608 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • if i was in the car ...

    if i was in the car i woulndnt of waited i would have said punch it1

    By bubbajimmy8 [Affiliate User] 1213726658 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • btw... this seems ...

    btw... this seems to be the original 16mm kodachrome version! nice footage, haven't seen this that often =) mostly u see the b/w footage from tellie...

    By DerChefWoWeiss [Affiliate User] 1213626183 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • people always think ...

    people always think steel is not flexible... now u see how flexible it can be =)

    its a pretty simple fault engineers did back there. too much wind, too much area for the wind to work. as soon as the bridge once reached its frequency it was clear the breakdown was about to break. sooner or later...

    there r worse engineer failures, but this one is just too good =) looks goergous!

    By DerChefWoWeiss [Affiliate User] 1213625528 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • poser

    poser

    By rocker931 [Affiliate User] 1213554782 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • incredible

    incredible

    By souljaboy5812 [Affiliate User] 1213503242 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Someones got some ...

    Someones got some explaining to do here folks.

    By DecommMan [Affiliate User] 1213495099 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Y'know, that ...

    Y'know, that happens to be one the world's GREATEST (magnitudinallly--NOT coolest!!!!)
    tragedies until Pearl Harbor just a year later (Europe was already in WWII). BTW Tacoma was the home of the then-already legendary crooner (and role model for cereal pitchbruin) Sugar Bear, Bing Crosby.

    By SteveCarras [Affiliate User] 1213394009 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
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