The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse

###The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse

Puget Sound, Washington, 1940 — To save money, an engineer designed a solid steel suspension bridge that caught the wind and twisted itself to pieces.

Bridge designer Leon Moisseiff wanted to save money while building the world's third-longest suspension bridge across Washington’s Puget Sound. Instead of using traditional open trusses that let the breeze blow through, he used solid eight-foot steel plates.

Those massive steel plates acted exactly like giant sails. From the day it opened, the 2,800-foot roadway caught the wind and bounded up and down like a massive roller coaster.

The fun stopped on the morning of November 7, 1940. Sustained 40-mile-per-hour winds struck the bridge broadside, causing a violent, self-feeding twisting motion that engineers call "aeroelastic flutter."

At 11:10 AM, the immense forces finally tore the steel suspension cables apart. The enormous center span shredded itself to pieces and plunged 195 feet into the churning waters below.

How It Went Down
Solid platesare installed1940Bridge bouncesand rollsSummer 194040 mph windsstrikeNov 7, 1940Span violentlytwists apart11:10 amPlunges intothe Sound195-foot drop
Crazy-o-Meter
Certified bananas
No.14
A massive, solid steel suspension bridge stretches across a deep blue channel of water, but its roadway is wildly bucking and rolling up and down in ocean-like waves. In a vintage 1940s car flying over the peak of one of the concrete waves, wide-eyed thrill-seekers are floating out of their seats in zero gravity, gripping the dashboard with panicked but excited grins. Down on the swaying deck, a dizzy construction worker with a pale green, seasick face is frantically stuffing bright yellow lemons into his mouth while clinging for dear life to a violently twisting steel suspension cable.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse — Puget Sound, Washington, 1940