It’s the 77th anniversary of the infamous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. Perhaps as incredible as the collapse itself is that it was captured on film by Barney Elliott, the owner of a Tacoma camera shop. The film shows a man unsuccessfully attempting to rescue his dog as the bridge ripples like a flag in the wind. Remarkably, the dog was the only casualty.
The bridge, which spanned the Puget Sound between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula, was built in 1940 and began swaying up and down in windy conditions before it was even open to the public. Engineers tried to correct the structural flaws, but the bridge dramatically collapsed into the Sound on November 7, 1940 during a 40 mile per hour wind storm.
Happy anniversary, Gertie! If we learned anything from you, it’s:
mแบ (t) + cแบ(t) + kx(t) = F cos(ฯt)
