Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse "Gallopin' Gertie"

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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.

Channel: Travel & Events
Uploaded: December 9, 2006 at 11:43 am
Author: GonzoNugent

Length: 00:05:56
Rating: 4.80
Views: 850027

Tags: Tacoma Bridge Gallopin Gertie Collapse Washington Puget Sound Gig Harbor Engineering Disaster landmark destination adventure travel log nature

Video Comments:
diamondbackseye (January 8, 2009 at 5:45 pm)
Salvagers? People actually had to be outlawed from diving into the water and swiping souvenirs from this?
Gertie's (that is such a lame nickname) designer must have looked like Rodney Dangerfield the rest of his life---"Whoa!!! tough crowd here!!
yodaballs1 (January 7, 2009 at 7:36 pm)
i watched this at school during Industrial Tech =) were building a bridge tomorrow made of wood but who cares
FretBoardPlayGround (January 7, 2009 at 5:19 pm)
RIP Spot.... haha a dog died in this shit... fuckin mut
BackfallGenius (January 7, 2009 at 3:38 pm)
Lol @ people thinking its a fake. It is real, the vibration frequencies of the steel in the bridge just so happened to exactly match the wind frequencies on that day, which altered the normal frequency rate of the bridge itself, causing it to sway and eventually collapse.
The chances of this actually happening were very rare so the engineers of this bridge forgot about it, but it did happen, as seen in this video.
CrazedSquirrel (January 7, 2009 at 12:08 pm)
No. Where in the video?
bigjr872 (January 7, 2009 at 1:45 am)
how did they put tht old video in color
KookyMonster14 (January 6, 2009 at 7:14 pm)
now that my friends is how NOT to build a bridge!
charliemac64 (January 5, 2009 at 6:08 pm)
I think you are thinking of the Hood Canal Bridge, about 60 miles north of this bridge. It is a different type of structure, a floating concrete pontoon bridge. Half of it was destroyed in February 1979 during a hellacious storm.
charliemac64 (January 5, 2009 at 6:04 pm)
The bridge didn't get rebuilt for some time as all the raw materials were going for the war effort even before the war. The fact it opened in 1940 must be held in check that it took a couple of years to build the bridge, and that appropriations therefore were from several years before that.

That, and I think they had to go back to the drawing board. :)

I drive over the replacement, and the new sister bridge, frequently.
laSKJDFNA (January 5, 2009 at 9:33 am)
I really like the sign saying "closed" in the end :D
Tacoma has served as an example for engineers
all over the world. I learned about it at university (Sweden) ten years ago.