Washington State is know for many things from Mt. Rainier to the beautiful dry grasslands of the eastern part of the state. We’ve got a few things we’d rather not be known for as well. One of those is “Galloping Gertie”, formally known as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The bridge, completed in July 1940 and designed to span the Tacoma narrows strait into the Kitsap Peninsula, became unstable in a wind storm with sustained winds of 40 mph and broke apart, falling into Puget Sound. All this was, of course, caught on camera for the world to see.
When you watched video of this bridge undulating dramatically back and forth before finally tearing itself apart, you have to admit most people are drawn to watching it over and over as we just don’t see this kind of thing often. The press dubbed the brand new bridge – now torn apart by relatively light wind speeds – as “Galloping Gertie” for all time.
Today, November 7th, is the anniversary of Galloping Gertie’s demise. Since rebuilt, I often remember those videos as I cross its’s replacement. They “say” the engineers learned a lesson and that it will never happen again. At least that is what they say. Personally, if I were the last man on that bridge who had to leave his car and make his way to safety as shown in the video below, I would be “RUNNING” and not walking but, of course, you wouldn’t want to do that on camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFzu6CNtqec
