Galloping Gertie

[Scott Donley]

I live less than 2 miles from here. They rebuilt the bridge after the first one went down then a couple years ago they built a second bridge next to it. That was fun to watch it being built, when they installed the roadbeds on it they did it by lifting them from a ship into place. Some one screwed up though they thought they had the height correct but had failed to take high tide into account and the ship would not fit under the bridge. Fun times :o This is a good watch if you have never seen it before. Galloping Gertie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw

[Matt Day]

I remember studying resonance frequency in engineering school and discussing the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Engineers learn from mistakes!

[Bill Dufour]

Was the new one made in China? One near my brother was and it makes it hard for the barge since they can not dock more then once without leaving the country. Not sure if they can drop anchor or not.

[Jim Koepke]

I remember studying resonance frequency in engineering school and discussing the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Engineers learn from mistakes!

It may be not all engineers study resonance frequency. At one time, during my job as a drafter at a breathing air pump manufacturer, one particular model had a problem of flying apart. A little math indicated to me the piston rod was the perfect length to resonate at the running speed. The engineer on the project said that was a crazy idea and didn't want to talk about it.

He wasn't the only engineer in my time to indicate their egos were often bigger than their mental agility.

Old joke about this (or any other profession where a lot of ego is involved)… What is the difference between God and an engineer? A) God doesn't think he is an engineer.

jtk

[Doug Dawson]

I live less than 2 miles from here. They rebuilt the bridge after the first one went down then a couple years ago they built a second bridge next to it. That was fun to watch it being built, when they installed the roadbeds on it they did it by lifting them from a ship into place. Some one screwed up though they thought they had the height correct but had failed to take high tide into account and the ship would not fit under the bridge. Fun times :o This is a good watch if you have never seen it before. Galloping Gertie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw

You must be very old indeed! My hat goes off to you.

Yes this was a classic fail.

[Scott Donley]

You must be very old indeed! My hat goes off to you.

Yes this was a classic fail. No I was not around for the failed bridge (1940) and the replacement bridge I was but a baby (1950) The second bridge built right next to it to handle west bound traffic was built in 2007, that is the one I was able to watch the building

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mechanical resonant frequency is very important! Like the gentleman who was describing the vibration of his saw arbor that vibrated more loudly as it spun down, the rotors of x-ray tubes used in CT scanners spin and when the bearings start going, they will cause the anode to vibrate more as it goes through a certain narrow rpm range as they spin down at the end of a scan sequence. That is one of the things we listened for when we had a CT scanner that started experiencing an "artifact" in images while performing scans, especially if the tube was an older tube with a lot of scans on it.

[David Helm]

I have seen this film many times for many years. First time I have seen it colorized. Original was black and white.

[Brian Elfert]

I'm really surprised that in 1940 someone had a motion film camera to film the bridge go down. Maybe the failure took long enough that someone had time to show up with a camera. Video cameras were still years off in 1940 and not many had a motion film camera.

[Jim Koepke]

I'm really surprised that in 1940 someone had a motion film camera to film the bridge go down. Maybe the failure took long enough that someone had time to show up with a camera. Video cameras were still years off in 1940 and not many had a motion film camera.

The bridge was a news worthy item at the time. It was named Galloping Gertie by the construction workers before it opened.

More here > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940)

If you search around, there appears to be more than one film of this disaster.

The film of this bridge failure likely played in theater's news reels all across the country and around the world.

jtk