The Tacoma Narrows bridge - Gertie no longer gallops
On November 7, 1940, at approximately 11:00 AM, the first Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge collapsed due to wind-induced vibrations. Situated on the Tacoma Narrows in Puget Sound, near the city of Tacoma, south of Seattle, the bridge had only been open for traffic a few months.
This famous failure was a subject we studied in university physics class, back in Leuven. I vividly remember the spectacular video shown by Professor Van Deinze. Little did I know that one day I would live so near to this historical place. They built a new and better bridge back in the 40's, and currently they're even setting up a second one next to the existing because of the high traffic flow. I (and my South Park buddy) had a wonderful late afternoon, reminding me how cool it is to have studied all the sience that make engineers 'understand' natural phenomena such a resonance.
Read more about the disaster:
http://www.ketchum.org/bridgecollapse.html
and about the new bridge:
http://bridgepros.com/projects/TacomaNarrows/TacomaNarrows.htm
This famous failure was a subject we studied in university physics class, back in Leuven. I vividly remember the spectacular video shown by Professor Van Deinze. Little did I know that one day I would live so near to this historical place. They built a new and better bridge back in the 40's, and currently they're even setting up a second one next to the existing because of the high traffic flow. I (and my South Park buddy) had a wonderful late afternoon, reminding me how cool it is to have studied all the sience that make engineers 'understand' natural phenomena such a resonance.
Read more about the disaster:
http://www.ketchum.org/bridgecollapse.html
and about the new bridge:
http://bridgepros.com/projects/TacomaNarrows/TacomaNarrows.htm
posted by Stan (Stijn) at 7:59 PM
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