Why Did Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse?

In the small town of Waco, Texas who would have thought it was once well known for the structure of a bridge, the Waco Suspension Bridge to be exact. Up until 1870, the Brazos River was just a simple river that had no special meaning to it. The land around it was empty, occasionally you would find cattlemen pushing their cattle across stream, but that was only because you could not find one bridge that spanned the eight hundred miles of river flowing through Central Texas. This caused a serious transportation issue for merchants and travelers. It became clear that a better means of crossing the river was necessary.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened to the public on July 1st 1940 after being in construction for 2 years. The structure was built 5,939-foot-long with a span of 2800 feet in order to bridge the gap between Tacoma and Gig Harbour in the state of Washington, USA. It became known as “Galloping Gertie” due to the fact that the bridge

Sometimes the wind would not be perpendicular, in which the oscillation of the bridge was less, but there was still some oscillation. On November 7th, 1940, the Tacoma Bridge collapsed because the oscillation of the bridge became extreme. The oscillation of the bridge was caused by a wind speed of 42 mph (HistoryLink.org). After, approximately, an hour of a corkscrew like motion, the bridge collapsed into Puget Sound. This marked a huge turning point in the design of suspension bridges from that point in time to current time.

Furthermore, when the millennium bridge opened within the first weekend around 100,000 people had crossed the bridge. Due to such heavy traffic, this lead to something called resonance. Resonance is when the input vibrations frequency coincides with the natural frequency of the structure itself, causing large deflections to develop. The issue caused the bridge to undergo a swaying movement; hence led to its closure. After extensive research and analysis, it was found that the movement was caused by synchronized pedestrian footfall. To prevent this there were two options taken into account the lateral stiffening and the damping; both were used in order to increase the natural frequency of the structure so it did not match the footfall. In addition structures called fluid-viscous dampers and tuned mass dampers were installed to control both horizontal and vertical movements.

The same problem would occur every winter and political leaders thought it was time for a solution to be found. Every winter the East River would freeze over, making it difficult for the citizens of Brooklyn to get to New York City. A solution to this problem would be the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. With the backing of political boss, William Tweed the construction of the bridge would soon be underway. After 14 years of construction and much controversy the Brooklyn Bridge officially opened May 24th 1883.

There are many differences between our bridge and other bridges. One being location. Another one being that thing that was sacrificed for it. Another one being cost. Also another difference would be weight and capacity, and the size or length.

The cost of building a new bridge is one of the most important parts for the people there who have to pay for it and building a very expensive bridge makes a lot of people sceptic.

In 1919, a study was begun to see if it would be possible to build a bridge across the Golden Gate. Michael O’Shaughnessy was the San Francisco city engineer. He was in charge of the rebuilding of the city after the devastating 1906 earthquake that destroyed much of the city. O’Shaughnessy knew the need for the city to have bridges. Most said it could not be done and others said it could be done but “it would cost about $100 million to build it” (Barter 23). O’Shaughnessy and Strauss, both wanting the same thing, got together. After the two consulted, they figured the only way to bridge the channel was to use a suspension bridge.

Wald is a reporter for New York Times. He mentioned the reason for why the interstate 35W bridge would collapse into the Mississippi River was because there was a mistake in the bridge’s design. The reason was that there were few metal plates were too thin to be a junction of the bridge. So, these weak junctions caused the collapsed of the 35W bridge and let to 13 people killed during this accident. The Interstate 35W bridge had been existed for over 40 years after it was constructed in 1960s. After a long period of time, the bridge began to have weak points and require frequently repair for the bridge to make it safe. However, the changes made in the bridge made the bridge even weaker. After the bridge was collapsed into the Mississippi River, the National Transportation Safety Board held a conference to discuss the investigation about the cause of the bridge collapsed. Mostly, the investigators would

Improperly designed welds on the cross bracing led to the failure of 3 of the bridge’s beams. Extremely cold weather and constant morning rush-hour traffic also added to the list of causes. This caused the bridge to buckle inwards.

During the construction, two half-spans being assembled 50 meters above ground level had a misalignment of 4.5 inches or 114mm in camber. It was suggested by John Holland & Constructions to use a kentledge to weigh down the higher section of bridge. It so happened that they had ten, eight tonne concrete blocks on site. These were placed halfway along the higher span to

In 1921, he submitted a preliminary design of a hybrid structure; which called for a 2,640-foot suspension span and two 685 foot cantilevered trusses. However, the design was met with much opposition; as many believed it to be an eyesore and felt that it would take away the natural beauty of the landscape. Eight years later, Strauss enlisted the help of engineers Othmar Ammann, Charles Derleth Jr., and Leon Moiuserff to redesign the bridge. By increasing the length of the suspension span to 4,000 feet, the engineers would be able to eliminate the need for a hybrid

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is perhaps the most notorious failure in the world of engineering. It collapsed on November 7, 1940 just months after its opening on July 1, 1940. It was designed by Leon Moisseiff and at its time it was the third largest suspension bridge in the world with a center span of over half a mile long. The bridge was very narrow and sleek giving it a look of grace, but this design made it very flexible in the wind. Nicknamed the "Galloping Gertie," because of its undulating behavior, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge drew the attention of motorists seeking a cheap thrill. Drivers felt that they were driving on a roller coaster, as they would disappear from sight in the trough of

The Quebex Bridge collapsed at twenty-three minutes to six on 29th of August 1907. It was noted that many of the workers were preparing to leave as the Quebex Bridge collapsed. During the construction phase of the Quebex Bridge workers found concerning deflections in some of the

London is iconic for many things Big Ben, red telephone booths, double decker buses, and Tower Bridge. Built in 1884, Tower Bridge a staple of London. Pryor to the building of Tower Bridge, London Bridge was the only way to cross the Thames river. By the nineteenth century, the population of London had grown much too large for one bridge, however there was a challenge as to how to build the bridge without disrupting river traffic. In 1876 a “Special Bridge Committee” was formed to oversee the designing and building of the bridge. The committee decided to open the designing up for public competition. Over fifty designs were submitted and the committee filtered through them until they discovered one that they liked. The chosen design was created by Horace Jones, the city architect, and John Wolfe Barry (“Bridge History”). Construction began in October of 1884. Two gigantic piers were driven into the river bed to support the eleven-thousand tons of steel and granite that were used to construct Tower Bridge. The project took eight years, five contractors, and over four-hundred thirty construction workers every day to complete. When it was first completed, Tower Bridge was the most largest and most complex bascule bridge ever built. The large bascules were raised and lowered by large hydraulic cylinders that were powered by massive steam engines and boilers. The bridge remained this way until 1976 when it was updated to be ran with oil and electricity (“History of Tower Bridge”).