TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE COLLAPSE

In Washington State, there is a bridge called as the Tacoma Bridge. The bridge
was constructed to cross the Tacoma Narrows, part of Puget Sound, between the city of
Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula. The bridge was opened to public and traffic on 1 July
1940, which is two years after the design and construction were completed. The
suspension of the bridge spanned over a mile and had a unique slender design. The
bridge also called as “Galloping Gertie” because of its movement which can be large up
and down on windy days. The bridge was the third longest bridge in the world in that
time. However, it was much narrower, lighter and more flexible compared to the other
bridge. The bridge is 39 ft wide and 8 ft deep concrete deck, and it accommodated two
lanes of traffic.

At 7.30 am on 7 November 1940, the movement of the Tacoma Bridge was

undulating and changed from the usual longitudinal motion to twisting mode. The peak
twisting motion of the roadbed is estimating to have been 25 ft from crest to valley. Due
to its alarming movement, the bridge was closed due to its unsafe condition. The north
center stays broke and the bridge began to twist into two parts. There were two cars on
the bridge at the moment. After they crawled to the safety, the stiffening girders in the
middle of the bridge buckled and started to collapse. The chaos movement continued to
increase for about an hour until the suspender cables snapped and 600 ft of the
roadbed was dropped into the Puget Sound below. The weight of the sagging side
spans pulled the towers 12 ft towards them and the ruined bridge finally came to a rest.

Right after the accident happened, the investigation has been made and had
revealed some unsettling facts. According to The federal Works Agency (FWA), the
bridge was well design and well built. It could be safely resisting all the static forces, and
the wind has caused extreme undulations until the bridge had collapsed. There is no
one had realized that the bridge was unable to absorb dynamic forces which would
make the oscillations destroyed the bridge. The failure of cable band on the north end,
which was connected to the center ties, probably started the twisting motion of the
bridge. The twisting motion caused high stresses throughout the bridge, which lead to
the failure of the suspenders and collapse of the main span. In order to determine the
aerodynamic forces which act on suspension bridges, subsequent studies and
experiments are needed.

To be concluded, the FWA stated that the torsional oscillations which caused the
bridge’s failure was because of Tacoma Bridge’s extreme flexibility, narrowness and the
random force of the wind on that day. The FWA believed that wind induced oscillations
approached the natural frequencies of the structure causing resonance.

However, there were also some issues with the design process that produced the
bridge design. One of the factors behind the bridge design was cost reduction. The first
design proposed for the bridge was estimated to cost $11 million. Then, the estimated
price of the approved design was 3$ million cheaper. The approved design was
considered to be much more elegant and aesthetically pleasing. As the design of the
bridge is one of the issues, the design review process was also ineffective or the design
flaws that contributed to the bridge collapse would have been identified prior to
construction.

The lessons learned from the failure has made the responsible party that were in
charge had come with possible solutions. Since the bridge captured significant wind
energy, the solution is to reduce the area of bridge hit by wind. And to solve the issue
bridge deck weak in torsion, they have to strengthen the bridge design. The possible
solution were incorporated into the design of the replacement of Tacoma Narrows
Bridge that was opened in a year after, which is on October 1950.