We had a guest lecturer come into our Civil Engineering class once, and part of his presentation involved the Tacoma Narrows, and said “fortunately nobody was killed,” and was promptly corrected by the whole class “THE DOG!!!”
Back in the 90's, I remember freezing rain was coating the large cables then high winds were dislodging large sheets of ice and crashing down on cars, breaking windshields making a quite memorable experience. We drove next to a large truck in hopes it would protect us while crossing. The toll is $6.50 now for anyone wondering. 😂
Fun fact: Some of the most dramatic looking footage is a result of a discrepancy in film speed. Some of it is filmed at 16fps and some 24fps, but it was assumed that it was all 24. So when it was duplicated and distributed, the slower frame rate footage was speeded up quite a bit.
And last but not least; "quite a bit", figures out to be 50% increase - i.e. the speeded up sections are going @ 150% rate. (nothing but highschool math required)
Funfact: The thing still moves like crazy, but as it was designed to: slowly up and down. When we were kids we'd go under it and goof around on the girders. On windy days you could reach up, grab an I-beam with your fingers, and the bridge would gently lift you up a couple of inches then set you back down. Your fingers tips could also feel mico-ripples undulating through the steel in ways that seemed impossible. Of course by 1990 they blocked off and filled in the area where you could easily access the girders and climb around the underside. Because nothing gold can stay.
I was born and raised in Tacoma and currently live across the Narrows in Bremerton on the Olympic Peninsula. I cross these bridges often. Thank you so much for doing a story about our “Galloping Gertie”. It really is an interesting one. Did you know the original Gertie was left to lay at the bottom of the Narrows in over 200 feet of cold turbulent water below? And that it created a reef that’s teeming with life and Is home to one of the worlds largest octopus? It’s been a popular spot for scuba divers for years. Pretty cool huh? Oh and also, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a park in Gig Harbor just under the west side of the Tacoma Narrows Bridges named Tubby’s Trail Dog Park in remembrance of our Cocker Spaniel friend Tubby. RIP I’ll bud!
Fun fact I learned in insurance School: The Safeco agent that underwrote the bridge pocketed all of the premiums instead of sending them to Safeco. "What could possibly happen to a bridge?" Because he was an agent for Safeco, the company still had to pay and the agent went to jail for fraud.
This made me think of the "Walkie Talkie" London skyscraper that was so reflective and shaped in a way that it was causing cars to literally melt!! Would love it if you covered that case, I had known of the Tacoma Narrows bridge but you definitely provided some insight I wasn't aware of before. I also really love the "RIP Tubby"
There was a art museum or music hall in downtown Los Angeles that was so reflective that it was melting cars. I think that they had to resurface the building to change the reflection from specular to diffusive - they made the surface rougher.
@@edwardlulofs444 It's the Disney Opera House. It was also making the buildings in the area tens of degrees hotter than the ones in the surrounding areas. I think Modern Marvels covered it back in the 2000s.
I studied audio engineering and in the acoustics section of the course, we looked at the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, specifically the way the wind caused the two giant posts to act as basically giant tuning forks. As a fun homework task, our professor told us to try and recreate the event with household items, and handed out actual tuning forks for us to use. I We managed to get the wave-like up and down motion easily, but nobody could figure out how to get the twisting effect = now, nearly ten years later, I understand why. Fantastic video, always love your content!
I live like maybe 5 miles from that bridge! Edit: after watching the whole video, I have to say, you teach the history of this bridge better than my construction trade instructors did. I'm a new fan, I've only watched maybe a dozen of your videos so far so idk much about you yet. That said, you're a great teacher, particularly of some difficult topics. You cover all the angles of perspectives and values. Theres the straight history, including the financial bits. You cover the actual construction from who was in charge to who actually built it. You cover mass AND individual impacts of its construction and destruction. You then GO INTO DETAIL about the specific physical forces that led to its destruction. I'm just impressed on how well you did your homework on top of making it enjoyable to learn about. Mad props. Thank you.
Huge spending bill. And yet less 1/10th of what we spend on our military over the same period. And we wonder why our roads, bridges, sewers, water treatment systems … are falling apart.
Ugh, well said Wally. This stuff is scary to me. I live in Minnesota and I remember back in 2007 when the I35W bridge collapsed, there were TONS of news stories from across the country about the terrifyingly bad state of our infrastructure, about how this was a "ticking time bomb"... and I really thought people might start caring and something might be done before it was too late. I was young and foolish, what can I say lol. I can only imagine how much worse things must be now, 15 years later...
Not to nit pick, but it's the system. We make private companies spend billions in R&D to make this start of the art hardware, then we tell them they can only sell the product to 5-6 other countries if that. I think we can all agree that Defense Budget is out of control. I remember when the F-22 was being developed, the Air Force would buy 7-8 hundred. The Air Force bought 195.🤔
Great Video! I was a High School physics teacher and always used the Bridge footage to help explain the power of resonance. I knew about Tubby and after I told them about the only casualty of the collapse my classes would have a sad moment for Tubby. When I taught I always tried to tied in real life events with my lessons. This one was one that the students always seemed to pay great attention to.
I know this might be weird but this is my favorite go to sleep channel. Something about his presentation is just the right amount of interesting yet soothing. I usually re-watch the end of the video the next day.
Perhaps it was more an indication of the university I went to than anything else, but back when I did a civil engineering degree, our lecturer showed us the Tacoma Narrows film but didn't really explain why it happened or how you would prevent it. After that day, for the next 5 years, it was never mentioned again. I learnt more about it from an incidental physics class and by researching it myself some time after I graduated than from the actual engineering lectures!
My brother is a civil engineer... this makes sense. I've always been slightly terrified at him potentially having anything whatsoever to do with our nation's critical infrastructure. Luckily, they let y'all do other stuff too ;) (just messing with ya! Most civil engineers I've met are perfectly smart, capable people. Just not the one I know best lol)
@@JusNoBS420 It was in the UK. I guess something they deemed 'trivial' was not worth an in depth examination. When teaching a subject, especially a subject such as engineering where errors often cost lives, you would think investigation of mistakes, famous ones at that, would be a class.
@@tomstamford6837 That’s a good point lol. Obviously this bridge was built in 1940 and the technology was fairly new. But obviously sometimes more valuable lesson’s can be learned from structural failures than from successes. Hindsight is always 20/20 right. Cheers mate!
@@JusNoBS420 Yeah, it's interesting to look back at what was groundbreaking and pushing the envelope even in the mid 20th C. Unfortunately for them, and others, there was a mix of limits to understanding, experience and over confidence. Still happens, but less likely. Of course we can be somewhat smug as we have advanced modelling, computer or good old physical models, as well as a greater technical understanding. Sometimes it's easy to forget that. It's like looking at ancient structures and thinking, wow, amazing they knew how to do that. What we don't see are the failures that regularly happened and the "It works, we're not sure why, but it does" thinking. With my original post... OK, you can't base your whole curriculum on what not to do, but it's not flower arranging, where mistakes don't matter (sorry to flower arrangers) and attention should be paid to that aspect of engineering.
My daughter was a Civil Engineering student at UW during the time the third bridge was being built, next to the 1950 bridge. This was a case study, and a field trip. She got to sit on some remnant of the original bridge, and sketch the second bridge.
Lol, I was gonna say. Regardless, I think we should do it :) I don't care about how many pearl-clutching grandmas swerve off the road because of it.. it's worth it anyway!
Thanks for mentioning resonance! That's been a passionate subject for me since Mythbusters flubbed it so so many years ago. When I was in high school marching band, we had almost 200 members. One time we had to march across a bridge and our steps matched a resonance of the bridge. By the time I was halfway across, the bridge deck was dropping about 6 inches with each step, then bouncing back up. We all thought it was fun, even though a lot of us got nauseous. Looking back, that had a chance to turn into a tragedy.
Military units marching are ordered to break step when crossing bridges. The worst part is that if a bridge starts to resonate with people walking, everyone gets forced to match the movement to not fall over, as in the London Millennium Bridge.
@@blacksmith67 Interesting, good to know they do that! The bridge was bouncing a little slower than the beat of our song so it was messing us up. The people staying on beat were repeatedly stepping on the drop which I think was making it worse. We really should have stopped until we crossed.
I’m glad the bridge was safe, Girl Scouts are incredibly dangerous. If you see a girl scout Forest Services advise that you do not approach, if they approach you you should slowly walk away while making yourself look big, do not make eye contact and do not run or it will activate their hunting instincts. When in Girl Scout country always travel in groups and carry pepper spray to minimize the risk of attack. Do not under any circumstances give the Girl Scouts merit badges, as this may encourage them to seek out other hikers. Dozens of trained den mothers are killed every year handling these dangerous creatures. If you are bitten by a Girl Scout please seek medical attention immediately, as they may have rabies.
Not surprised. Little devils that scream at people at walmart with no respect and wonder why no one buys the overpriced cookies. Think its horrid that walmart allows harassments of customers, and the whole boy and girl scouts is a farce that the parents do most of the work, pay fees and still use their own money to make this dog and pony show money (yes, I was a parent involved with my daughters).
I’ve lived in the seattle/Tacoma area my whole life so I’ve heard about galloping gertie right a bit! Fun fact, at the seattle aquarium there’s actually a piece of the bridge used as decoration in one of the fish tanks!
My brother is a structural engineer who inspects bridges and dams through diving and repelling. He tells horrifying stories about bridge infrastructure. There was a bridge he was inspecting that was in poor condition and was listed for car traffic only. During the time they were inspecting it multiple trucks drove over it to avoid a nearby interstate toll bridge.
That video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge (1.0) is legend. I remember seeing it for the first time, in Canada, in a middle-school science class. They used a film projector to show it to us (don't you miss the sound of whirring film projectors?)
I did my phd on fluid-structure interaction CFD, and even though my studies had nothing to do with bridges (I focused on FSI in rocket engines) I swear just about every single presentation I saw at conferences had a gif of galloping gerty on the "historical background" slide... and yes that includes all of my presentations too (right next to gifs of a flapping flag and some fluttering leaves). Idk if we all thought it was a particularly useful example of aeroelastic flutter or vortex induced vibrations (VIV), or if we all just put it on our slides as a meme. Either way, I have seen that video SO many times, but honestly this is by far the most I've ever learned about it... including that a dog died in that failure, I might not have used that example so jokingly had I known that.
Having recently studied basic aerodynamics in the air force, I recognised the phenomenon immediately; and that the reasons put forward for it were off the mark. I tried to explain this to the professor who gave the lecture, but he would have none of it. The 'pulsing wind' explanation was simply illogical - there was no evidence of pulsing. The cause is VERY evident in the short films; and this narrator comes close, but is not actually correct. It's called Torsional Flexural Flutter. There's no need to invoke turbulence.
Yeah, the "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" saying. I too have seen many videos about that bridge collapsing and from what I can remember, most of the videos did mention that a dog was in that car but about half of the videos did not mention that the dog bit the guy who went out to try and get it out of the car before the bridge collapsed, but said that he was unable to get the dog out of the car before the bridge collapsed instead of the dog bit him and he had to give up on trying to rescue the dog.
And yet in 2000 in London a pedestrian bridge across the Thames designed by Norman Foster, one of the World's top guys in the field (he later did the one at MILLAU in France) had exactly the same problem and was closed on the day it opened. Took 2 years to strengthen it.
Yeah, I went down the Millennium Bridge rabbit hole a year or so ago. Similar problem but caused by very slight movement prompting people to begin walking in step, thereby increasing the oscillation. That rabbit hole is where I learned that soldiers stop marching in step when crossing bridges. Apparently many a sturdy bridge had been shaken apart by marching soldiers.
Wasn't from wind effects though. So not the same problem at all. That was positive feedback phenomenon- synchronous lateral excitation -and was excerbated by 1,000+ people unconsciously shifting their walking step in phase with perturbations that originally started off very small (a few mm). But these minor perturbations rapidly grew and were immediately further amplified by the in-phase stepping of a thousand people to quickly become unsafe condition.
@@bbbf09 Exactly... They took all of the most modern design steps, but the ultimate issue was something no one has seen before. Thankfully it was apparent that there was an issue, and after things like the Tacoma Narrows, that fatigue and resonance has been much more in engineers minds. Pedestrian induced vibrations, tho, that was a new one.
I remember seeing footage of the bridge when I was a kid back in the 1970’s. It gave me nightmares. The show also made it sound, at least to a young child, like he left the dog on purpose. That added to the nightmares. I still feel uneasy when I see the footage because of those vivid dreams, though I now understand about the dog.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse is something that I’ve been shown repeatedly in my educational career. The engineering disasters remind me of a truism: “If a doctor has a bad day and screws up, one person can die. If an Engineer has a bad day and screws up, 1,000 people can die.” I’ve always tried to remember that and engineer like I’m protecting a family of 5, and I’ve seen competitors who engineer like they’re protecting a wallet of $5.
The original firm on the Korean Sampoong Department store, Woosung, got kicked off the job when they refused to make the massive changes the owners wanted. You never hear about the company that had integrity, only the $5 wallet guys when the inevitable failure happens. My engineering 101 prof gave us that saying in his first lecture . I like your expression.
I grew up in the Seattle area and my dad loved telling this story for some reason (he thankfully would leave out the detail of the dog because otherwise my sisters and I would have cried-- RIP Tubby). Can't say it never passes through my mind whenever I drive across a suspension bridge on a windy day...
A friend of my parents was a Civil Engineering student at Yale University during the late 1930s. His senior thesis dealt with suspension bridges. His main thesis was that they can become unstable under certain conditions. He claimed that that new bridge design being considered for the Tacoma Narrows had a potential to oscillate. He was immediately kicked out of the program. Yale was not going to give its blessing to a claim of such an absurd and consequential outcome. When it collapsed they sheepishly and with profuse apologies, reinstated him.
Yes, construction workers should name all bridges. 👍 That's a great idea, I love it. Certainly better than some politician and it would give the people a connection with it, too.
In my class we talk about this very accident and the causes. Yes the students are upset their was a dog in the car. I think more than if like 20 people died.
I have been across these many times, and I can vouch - the winds through that narrow waterway (with steep rising land on either side) is intense. Even just driving across the current bridges in a box truck is a little scary.
Can confirm. I've driven across the bridge in a delivery van many times, and it's terrifying during high winds. I'm always scared that a strong enough wind will push the van over! 😅
I'm a simple man. I see Answers With Joe, I watch it. No cap though the content from this channel has been a pretty routine part of my week for maybe two years now. I'm always looking forward to your shtuff. Thank ya
The Narrows bridge fell 5 years and 1 day before I was born. I've heard about "Galloping Gertie" all my life. I've traveled over the replacement bridge ever since it opened. I've even been over the "sister" bridge built alongside it. but only once. I'd rather take a ferry to get to the Kitsap Peninsula as the time and fuel saved works for me. Always fun to watch the film footage again. Thanks.
Okay, the footage of the bridge waving around like that seriously freaks me out. How on earth did people see that happening and still consider it safe to drive across??
That was great! I have seen the documentary (actual film) in the late 70s. I don't remember hearing about poor Tubby or the engineer getting bitten. If you like engineering disasters, another of my favorites is the Hancock Tower aka the Plywood Skyscraper of Boston, MA. The movement of the building under wind loading caused it to bend enough that the huge glass windows were popping out. (Boston Harbor, very windy.) There are several nice videos on RUclips that I had not seen before. The building required substantial interior retrofit to remove the sway. The Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 is also noteworthy. And the Spruce Goose. The ASME was created in 1880 to make boilers safe when they were a main part of industry.
Suspension bridges weren’t new, the suspension bridge in the city where I grew up was opened in 1864 (it was actually designed in 1831, but took a while to raise funds etc.) - the Clifton Suspension bridge. Still open to two way car and truck traffic 150+ years later… What was new was cutting back the design to save money!
I live in the city of Melbourne, Australia - specifically the outer western suburbs. To be able to access the city the quickest and most convenient route is to cross the Westgate Bridge. This bridge is massive (over double the length of the Sydney Harbour Bridge) and carries hundreds of thousands of vehicles over the Yarra River daily. Sadly During construction of the bridge in 1970, it collapsed killing 35 construction men including the head engineer of the project. Its kind of eerie as you approach the western end of the bridge, knowing there are bodies still buried down there in the water.
Back in 1976 I had an engineering class at LSU that was led by a man named Boroslavsky ... IIRC. In his charming old world accent he told us proudly, "I helped design the Tacoma Narrows Bridge!!" We all gaped silently. He continued ... Ya, I designed the towers! They stayed up!" :) s
You'd think engineers learned valuable lessons from Tacoma bridge collapse and apply them in areas outside of building bridges. Nope. In the advent of transistorized electronic appliances, around late 1940's, manufacturers were baffled about the high DOA rate of products due to shipping. Everything outside the shell were perfectly OK but some components inside seem to just shear off at their legs. They knew it was transport related but had limited understanding of how it happens. This went on from 1950's to early 60's before engineers agreed to just glue down all the usual suspects. It would take another 15 years, with the availability of high speed cameras, before they could gain better understanding of how the failures happen. Nowadays, manufacturing plants have rigorous vibration testing as part of their production process.
Talking about resonance forces. In the city i am from Manchester UK. There is a building known as Betham Gate Tower. When it gets especially windy. The air circulation unit on the top of the tower. Acts like a giant flute. And makes an exeedingly loud humming sound. So loud that it can be heard up to ten miles away.
I've driven across the Narrows Bridge many many times. It is an exquisite example of beauty in form & function. The view from the bridge is breathtaking! Driving across, for me at least, is a major test of courage. I know it's completely safe still, I see 'Gurdy Galloping' the back of my mind and don't waste any time crossing. Seriously, everything about the Pacific Northwest is beautiful. My favorite way to see the bridge is via AmTrack. The train follows the shoreline from South of Portland, Oregon all the way to Bellingham, Washington with stops in Vancouver, Tacoma & Seattle. The landscapes are breathtaking. You literally pass under the Narrows Bridge. I don't work for AM Track but since I have family near Seattle using the train is the ONLY way to make the trip.
I live in Seattle and would travel across the Tacoma Narrows bridge on occasion to our vacation cabin. Every single time I was white knuckled. From the height over the water. The narrow widths of the 2 lanes (each direction). And the cross winds coming along the water. They have since built a new bridge adjacent to the old one in which each bridge handles one direction of travel.
I remember taking the Narrows bridge before the second one was built. So dang narrow with the 2 way traffic. The only bridge in the northwest that ever made me feel less comfortable was Lion's Gate up in Vancouver.
I remember that Pittsburgh bridge collapse. I live in PA and know a few people in Pittsburgh. That was crazy. PA has the worst roads and bridges. We need all the help we can get.
3:03 I like fairies they’re slow and fun and you know it’s a different experience than just no more driving you know and then feel that cool breeze from the water enjoying a sort of like a cruise a little bit different experience.
I literally finished reading “A Fountain of Paradise” by Arthur C Clarke where this bridge was compared to the design of the first space elevator, how it could all end in disaster, and history will never forget it.
Suspension bridges were anything but new when the Tacoma bridge was built; Cincinnati's Roebling bridge was finished in 1867. Zero automobiles drove across it for decades. Roebling also designed the later Brooklyn Bridge.
I drive the Tacoma Narrows every day. Growing up we constantly heard about Galloping Gertie and how she fell because there wasn't air flow. The replacement bridge has gaps with grates for air flow right in the roadway. When they decided to build a second bridge next to it they built it differently. There are no air gaps in the roadway. After hearing all of those stories growing up it was very weird to drive across the new second bridge and be able to actually change lanes.
It's such a shame that the state legislature it didn't allow the bridge to be paid off in full recently with the surplus that we have just so that they can continue to collect tolls and draw out the repayment process and make as much money as possible for themselves and the toll company
I wouldn't be surprised if the toll company had managed to sneak some of their nonsense into previous infrastructure bills that effectively required the government to give them a share of any future pie. Maybe not, but that kind of stuff is so common it's not even surprising anymore and I absolutely hate that kind of crap... it's so blatantly anti-progress just for like 9 people to get stupid rich.
How will maintenance be paid for? Yeah everyone's all big on building the bridge but when it comes time to paint the thing ... not so much. Keep the tolls.
I love Mondays, it means a new vid from Joe Scott. It was 10 years ago that the an from the mentioned car washed up on the shore. Also, the ferries are a pleasure to take; they run often, give the driver a break (me), and are usually a time saver.
Thank you for doing a video on our fun, little bridge. I grew up outside of Tacoma in a town that will be destroyed by your previous Cascadia video aka "the Big One" (on a Washington kick? Lol) I remembered every time we'd cross the bridge I hoped it would sway (it never did), but you can sorta see pieces of Galloping Gertie. Also, with your "doom and gloom" and Washington focus, you should look into Mt. Rainier. We're also overdue, and "when Little Sister speaks twice Big Brother answers"... just sayin' ;)
I cross the Mackinac Bridge that connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan which was completed in the mid-1950s. The two center lanes are metal grates that wind flows through. Driving on the grate causes your vehicle to "wiggle". Lots of tourists complain about this and stay on the outside concrete lanes. When I hear these complaints I refer those people to the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Hey Joe, I have never heard that story about the dog either. I lived just to the north of Seattle. I have driven across the bridge that replaced the one that fell down.
@@JusNoBS420, I only lived in Seattle for a short time in the mid 60's but I live in Thailand now and have been here for the past 15 years. I used to go to Southern California to visit my Mom each year for 3 months around Christmas but she died in 2016. I haven't been to America since then. I have no family left so Really have no reason to go any longer. Thailand is my home now.
I live near the narrows bridge and go over it everytime I see the doctor. It's essentially a wind tunnel similar to a valley and they are strong enough to make the water look like a smooth surface until you get to the shores. It's intense.
Tacoma is my hometown though we recently moved to Colorado and I miss it at times. We couldn't afford to live in WA any longer and my husband was offered a huge increase in income couldn't say no. Maybe one day we can move back.
There used to be a whole girder structure on the Bronx Whitestone bridge in NYC which I read somewhere we’re added in response to the Tacoma narrows bridge as the design was said to be similar. These girders then had to be removed about 20 yrs ago because they determined the extra weight would eventually cause the cables to fail prematurely.
Hello, again, from Olympia, WA, one one generation away from the Tacoma Narrows collapse! I recall being terrified of crossing bridges when I was a kid, because The Narrows was all anyone talked about when bridges were brought up, and I didn't know where The Narrows were- to me, the floating bridge in Seattle was pretty narrow, but it seemed like it'd be pretty safe to fall from a floating bridge... So, as a kid, I thought the floating bridge was the answer the bridges collapsing. I think I'm going to have to steal your description of the Puget Sound being a place where the Pacific ocean went all crazy, when talking to those from out of state, from now on...
I was a Washington resident for 15 years and lived in Tacoma for 4. That bridge will always be the most famous thing about the city, when in fact it needs remember for being where The Far Side's Gary Larson came from.
Galloping Gerdie! I myself live on the Kitsap Peninsula, in Poulsbo, just North of Bainbridge Island where there's a ferry port and a really pretty and successful shopping area, and my Mother worked in Seattle on and off for many years and goes over to see doctors for her MS, and if we ever have to go to County Court, that's in Port Orchard, and I work in Bremerton -- navigating Puget Sound is a regular part of life for us, to the point tourists will hire locals to help them plan how to get places while they're here, to see the most of our sights. The Tacoma Narrows is a MAJOR thouroughfair here, and is one of the few ways to get from the peninsula to Tacoma and Seattle -- the other ways are driving all the way around, or taking one of our famous ferries. It's a beautiful place to live, but we also are a bit isolated from the rest of the state. We get to see orcas come through regularly, at least -- check out our whaling days if your ever in the area.
You're on a Pacific Northwest Kik(edit:(kick)Google thought I was looking for a Kik girlfriend). It's okay It happens to me too. Pretty soon you're going to have a video on the coast of Oregon. Love it!
My 3x great grandfather, Isaac Crouse Sr., was a bridge builder who built many of the first bridges in London, Ontario. He and my 3x-great grandmother and 3 of her brothers settled in London in 1820, 6 years before London was even established as a village. He built several of the wooden bridges known as Blackfriars Bridge that kept on getting swept away during the yearly spring floods. In 1875 his son, Isaac Jr. built the wrought iron version of Blackfriars that still stand today (even though several years ago the road part of the bridge was changed from wooden boards to asphalt to help it last for another 100+ years, but the wrought iron structure is still the same metal that's been there since 1875). Isaac Jr. also started to build Meadowlily Bridge which is also still standing. He died before it was finished but his son Levi finished the build. I wish I could say that I inherited the family "tradition", but my total lack of math skills have ruined any chance I'll ever have of doing anything that involves algebra/geometry/etc. I do have immense respect for bridge builders and their creations, though. Well, so long as their bridges don't kill any dogs.
A picture of this bridge was in a prominent position in the Civil Engineering department's at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a reminder that the overlooked little things, like damped harmonic motion, can lead to a disaster.
Pittsburgher here. Joe is correct when he said there could've been many more people on that bridge. Schools were delayed that morning because of weather and so the dozens of buses that cross that bridge were not on the road yet that morning.
This incident and the Hyatt Regency Hotel walkway collapse were shown in many of my engineering classes as examples of what can happen when you do things wrong.
A quote from one of my architecture lectures, which was given to him by his: "If you ever design something which falls down, make sure you're under it"
Thing about the "infrastructure bill" is that less than a tenth of it included anything even related to "infrastructure." There would probably not be any controversy if it was a 1-page bill that said "Here, we earmark $XX,XXX to refurbishing bridges: XXXX, XXXX, XXXX." You know? Not trying to sneak in bull shit under the guise of public work.
The Narrows Bridge is truly beautiful. They added a second span. Seattle is a great city, Tacoma is lovely with a zoo right on the water, restaurants with views of the Sound. Come visit u
Urban myth in the PNW said a giant octopus took the original bridge down. I was terrified to go over the bridge as a kid until I learned what really happened 😅 But it’s pretty cool that giant pacific octopus live in the remains of galloping Gertie
I've watched this footage many times over the years & my brain cells still can't fathom how steel & concrete can flop around w/o shattering & flying apart....so thanks, Joe -- please pardon me while I collapse.
@@LG123ABC car dependenct citys are not the same as not having cars. in rural places they make sence. most Americans hate there cars and by hate i mean they could care less. they just don't know there's a way to have city's where you don't need a car and the city doesn't suck (new york and Chicago are terrible examples of public transit and zoning there just sadly some of the best examples in the us that shows how far behind we are) this is coming from a person who trained and worked as a mechanic, welder, and has owned 3 miatas, a camaro, 2 suberbans, and a bunch of other cars, and was born and raised in tx
Its so wierd seeing all the metal and asphalt twist and wave like a piece of laundry in the wind how does something so sollid and massive turn into something with "rubber properties"
Yes, we've totally learned to build bridges properly now .... except in London and the MIllenium Footbridge. Sure, it was a different issue, but still embarrassing, though this is also funny.
I lived and worked in Tacoma for many years as a truck driver in the 1990's when it was still a single bridge spanning The Narrows. That bridge was scary to drive across in both a car or a big truck. In a car, you would focus on the grate roadway as you could see right through it to the water hundreds of feet bellow, and it would pull your wheels along the grooves. In a big truck, you had to stay in your very tight lane with a 2' guardrail that, if you hit, would only serve to tip your truck upside down into the water below. Now, there are two bridges parallel to each other that look completely different. It's an eyesore as they look completely out of place.
Very similar to this: the millenium bridge in london, that started to sway and swing up from people walking on it. They closed that one down and stiffened it, so its still around
Imagine giving a speech begging people to support spending tax dollars on infrastructure, and infrastructure literally collapses right beforehand. And people STILL don't want to fix the damn bridges. Like wtf.
In my local city, there was an office that was tested before building to ensure it didn't create any dangerous wind interactions, but apparently on construction, they changed their mind and wanted the front door on the other street since it was situated on a corner. So they rotated the plans 90° and built it. This ended up creating a wind tunnel along the larger main street which ended up killing a couple people when it tipped a large truck, all because last second they wanted the building to have a different address to make it more "prestigious"
We had a guest lecturer come into our Civil Engineering class once, and part of his presentation involved the Tacoma Narrows, and said “fortunately nobody was killed,” and was promptly corrected by the whole class “THE DOG!!!”
I'd be the one guy... "Who's Nobody? Was that the dogs name?"
The mutt isn’t dead, it waits for you in hell.
IM SORRY TUBBY, MAN HAS FAILED YOU
By the sounds of it, man tried, but dog was scared and thus bitey and man had to give up to survive themselves...
Because America. Where we live our dogs way more than our people.
Back in the 90's, I remember freezing rain was coating the large cables then high winds were dislodging large sheets of ice and crashing down on cars, breaking windshields making a quite memorable experience. We drove next to a large truck in hopes it would protect us while crossing. The toll is $6.50 now for anyone wondering. 😂
I remember that, I think it was the winter of ‘95/96? I think? There was a crazy ice storm in western Washington. I remember ice covered everything!
They’re finally talking about lowering it soon💀
I remember that storm! I was about 12, but EVERYTHING was covered in ice. There was half an inch of solid ice around the tree branches
Say it with me now.. GUSSET PLATES. If you know, you know 🧐🙌🏽
@@abbyolson8112
Wouldn't hold me breath.
Fun fact: Some of the most dramatic looking footage is a result of a discrepancy in film speed. Some of it is filmed at 16fps and some 24fps, but it was assumed that it was all 24. So when it was duplicated and distributed, the slower frame rate footage was speeded up quite a bit.
Okay, but while it might exaggerate the period of oscillation, it doesn't alter the vertical displacement shown. That is the truly freaky aspect.
@@tomstamford6837 You're absolutely right. It also doesn't change how massive the destruction was.
And last but not least; "quite a bit", figures out to be 50% increase - i.e. the speeded up sections are going @ 150% rate. (nothing but highschool math required)
Funfact: The thing still moves like crazy, but as it was designed to: slowly up and down. When we were kids we'd go under it and goof around on the girders. On windy days you could reach up, grab an I-beam with your fingers, and the bridge would gently lift you up a couple of inches then set you back down. Your fingers tips could also feel mico-ripples undulating through the steel in ways that seemed impossible. Of course by 1990 they blocked off and filled in the area where you could easily access the girders and climb around the underside. Because nothing gold can stay.
I believe the moment of failure was also missed. The camera man stopped to load more film thinking he was almost out.
I was born and raised in Tacoma and currently live across the Narrows in Bremerton on the Olympic Peninsula. I cross these bridges often. Thank you so much for doing a story about our “Galloping Gertie”. It really is an interesting one. Did you know the original Gertie was left to lay at the bottom of the Narrows in over 200 feet of cold turbulent water below? And that it created a reef that’s teeming with life and Is home to one of the worlds largest octopus? It’s been a popular spot for scuba divers for years. Pretty cool huh?
Oh and also, you’ll be happy to know that there’s a park in Gig Harbor just under the west side of the Tacoma Narrows Bridges named Tubby’s Trail Dog Park in remembrance of our Cocker Spaniel friend Tubby. RIP I’ll bud!
I've heard so much about the bridge but today's the first time I've heard about Tubby.🐶
lol thanks for that octopus fun fact
Wow, that's very interesting, thanks!
Me too
@@desperadox7565 that poor dog. Growing up around Seattle in the 1980’s everyone knew this story.
R.I.P Tubby. I hope you're romping with Laika in whatever happy place is reserved for animals that deserved far better than they got.
Fun fact I learned in insurance School: The Safeco agent that underwrote the bridge pocketed all of the premiums instead of sending them to Safeco. "What could possibly happen to a bridge?"
Because he was an agent for Safeco, the company still had to pay and the agent went to jail for fraud.
This made me think of the "Walkie Talkie" London skyscraper that was so reflective and shaped in a way that it was causing cars to literally melt!! Would love it if you covered that case, I had known of the Tacoma Narrows bridge but you definitely provided some insight I wasn't aware of before. I also really love the "RIP Tubby"
I don't remember the dog either. I saw the film in the late 70s.
funny thing is: the same architect built another tower that also melted the street below it.
Pretty sure he is some kind of super villain^^
There was a art museum or music hall in downtown Los Angeles that was so reflective that it was melting cars. I think that they had to resurface the building to change the reflection from specular to diffusive - they made the surface rougher.
@@edwardlulofs444 It's the Disney Opera House. It was also making the buildings in the area tens of degrees hotter than the ones in the surrounding areas. I think Modern Marvels covered it back in the 2000s.
@@lainiwakura1776 Thanks for adding those details.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen that footage but never knew when or where this actually happened. Thanks so much for the information.
Hello there
I studied audio engineering and in the acoustics section of the course, we looked at the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, specifically the way the wind caused the two giant posts to act as basically giant tuning forks. As a fun homework task, our professor told us to try and recreate the event with household items, and handed out actual tuning forks for us to use. I We managed to get the wave-like up and down motion easily, but nobody could figure out how to get the twisting effect = now, nearly ten years later, I understand why.
Fantastic video, always love your content!
You are such a nice person... hello 👋 how are you doing today?
I live like maybe 5 miles from that bridge!
Edit: after watching the whole video, I have to say, you teach the history of this bridge better than my construction trade instructors did. I'm a new fan, I've only watched maybe a dozen of your videos so far so idk much about you yet.
That said, you're a great teacher, particularly of some difficult topics. You cover all the angles of perspectives and values. Theres the straight history, including the financial bits. You cover the actual construction from who was in charge to who actually built it. You cover mass AND individual impacts of its construction and destruction. You then GO INTO DETAIL about the specific physical forces that led to its destruction.
I'm just impressed on how well you did your homework on top of making it enjoyable to learn about. Mad props. Thank you.
Huge spending bill. And yet less 1/10th of what we spend on our military over the same period.
And we wonder why our roads, bridges, sewers, water treatment systems … are falling apart.
Ugh, well said Wally. This stuff is scary to me. I live in Minnesota and I remember back in 2007 when the I35W bridge collapsed, there were TONS of news stories from across the country about the terrifyingly bad state of our infrastructure, about how this was a "ticking time bomb"... and I really thought people might start caring and something might be done before it was too late. I was young and foolish, what can I say lol.
I can only imagine how much worse things must be now, 15 years later...
Not to nit pick, but it's the system. We make private companies spend billions in R&D to make this start of the art hardware, then we tell them they can only sell the product to 5-6 other countries if that. I think we can all agree that Defense Budget is out of control. I remember when the F-22 was being developed, the Air Force would buy 7-8 hundred. The Air Force bought 195.🤔
Great Video! I was a High School physics teacher and always used the Bridge footage to help explain the power of resonance. I knew about Tubby and after I told them about the only casualty of the collapse my classes would have a sad moment for Tubby. When I taught I always tried to tied in real life events with my lessons. This one was one that the students always seemed to pay great attention to.
I know this might be weird but this is my favorite go to sleep channel. Something about his presentation is just the right amount of interesting yet soothing. I usually re-watch the end of the video the next day.
Perhaps it was more an indication of the university I went to than anything else, but back when I did a civil engineering degree, our lecturer showed us the Tacoma Narrows film but didn't really explain why it happened or how you would prevent it. After that day, for the next 5 years, it was never mentioned again.
I learnt more about it from an incidental physics class and by researching it myself some time after I graduated than from the actual engineering lectures!
My brother is a civil engineer... this makes sense. I've always been slightly terrified at him potentially having anything whatsoever to do with our nation's critical infrastructure. Luckily, they let y'all do other stuff too ;)
(just messing with ya! Most civil engineers I've met are perfectly smart, capable people. Just not the one I know best lol)
Which University did you go to? I grew up in Seattle and was always white knuckled driving over the Tacoma Narrows
@@JusNoBS420 It was in the UK. I guess something they deemed 'trivial' was not worth an in depth examination.
When teaching a subject, especially a subject such as engineering where errors often cost lives, you would think investigation of mistakes, famous ones at that, would be a class.
@@tomstamford6837 That’s a good point lol. Obviously this bridge was built in 1940 and the technology was fairly new. But obviously sometimes more valuable lesson’s can be learned from structural failures than from successes. Hindsight is always 20/20 right. Cheers mate!
@@JusNoBS420 Yeah, it's interesting to look back at what was groundbreaking and pushing the envelope even in the mid 20th C.
Unfortunately for them, and others, there was a mix of limits to understanding, experience and over confidence. Still happens, but less likely.
Of course we can be somewhat smug as we have advanced modelling, computer or good old physical models, as well as a greater technical understanding. Sometimes it's easy to forget that.
It's like looking at ancient structures and thinking, wow, amazing they knew how to do that. What we don't see are the failures that regularly happened and the "It works, we're not sure why, but it does" thinking.
With my original post... OK, you can't base your whole curriculum on what not to do, but it's not flower arranging, where mistakes don't matter (sorry to flower arrangers) and attention should be paid to that aspect of engineering.
My daughter was a Civil Engineering student at UW during the time the third bridge was being built, next to the 1950 bridge. This was a case study, and a field trip. She got to sit on some remnant of the original bridge, and sketch the second bridge.
Damn that's cool
As a construction professional.... you really don't want us naming things. World is much too sensitive for that
Lol, I was gonna say.
Regardless, I think we should do it :) I don't care about how many pearl-clutching grandmas swerve off the road because of it.. it's worth it anyway!
Thanks for mentioning resonance! That's been a passionate subject for me since Mythbusters flubbed it so so many years ago.
When I was in high school marching band, we had almost 200 members. One time we had to march across a bridge and our steps matched a resonance of the bridge. By the time I was halfway across, the bridge deck was dropping about 6 inches with each step, then bouncing back up. We all thought it was fun, even though a lot of us got nauseous. Looking back, that had a chance to turn into a tragedy.
Military units marching are ordered to break step when crossing bridges. The worst part is that if a bridge starts to resonate with people walking, everyone gets forced to match the movement to not fall over, as in the London Millennium Bridge.
@@blacksmith67 Interesting, good to know they do that! The bridge was bouncing a little slower than the beat of our song so it was messing us up. The people staying on beat were repeatedly stepping on the drop which I think was making it worse. We really should have stopped until we crossed.
Omg I can't watch that footage again without tearing up! Poor poor thing.
Did a Girlscouts march across this bridge with my daughter few years ago.
Everyone survived.
Hehe, well that's good to know!
I’m glad the bridge was safe, Girl Scouts are incredibly dangerous.
If you see a girl scout Forest Services advise that you do not approach, if they approach you you should slowly walk away while making yourself look big, do not make eye contact and do not run or it will activate their hunting instincts. When in Girl Scout country always travel in groups and carry pepper spray to minimize the risk of attack. Do not under any circumstances give the Girl Scouts merit badges, as this may encourage them to seek out other hikers. Dozens of trained den mothers are killed every year handling these dangerous creatures. If you are bitten by a Girl Scout please seek medical attention immediately, as they may have rabies.
Not surprised. Little devils that scream at people at walmart with no respect and wonder why no one buys the overpriced cookies. Think its horrid that walmart allows harassments of customers, and the whole boy and girl scouts is a farce that the parents do most of the work, pay fees and still use their own money to make this dog and pony show money (yes, I was a parent involved with my daughters).
I’ve lived in the seattle/Tacoma area my whole life so I’ve heard about galloping gertie right a bit! Fun fact, at the seattle aquarium there’s actually a piece of the bridge used as decoration in one of the fish tanks!
My brother is a structural engineer who inspects bridges and dams through diving and repelling. He tells horrifying stories about bridge infrastructure. There was a bridge he was inspecting that was in poor condition and was listed for car traffic only. During the time they were inspecting it multiple trucks drove over it to avoid a nearby interstate toll bridge.
That video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge (1.0) is legend. I remember seeing it for the first time, in Canada, in a middle-school science class. They used a film projector to show it to us (don't you miss the sound of whirring film projectors?)
The video was too short. Please make an hour long compilation. I like the way you narrate these mysteries.
Tacoma native here !!!! Love this story and love that bridge Washington is full of awesome history
I did my phd on fluid-structure interaction CFD, and even though my studies had nothing to do with bridges (I focused on FSI in rocket engines) I swear just about every single presentation I saw at conferences had a gif of galloping gerty on the "historical background" slide... and yes that includes all of my presentations too (right next to gifs of a flapping flag and some fluttering leaves). Idk if we all thought it was a particularly useful example of aeroelastic flutter or vortex induced vibrations (VIV), or if we all just put it on our slides as a meme. Either way, I have seen that video SO many times, but honestly this is by far the most I've ever learned about it... including that a dog died in that failure, I might not have used that example so jokingly had I known that.
Having recently studied basic aerodynamics in the air force, I recognised the phenomenon immediately; and that the reasons put forward for it were off the mark. I tried to explain this to the professor who gave the lecture, but he would have none of it.
The 'pulsing wind' explanation was simply illogical - there was no evidence of pulsing.
The cause is VERY evident in the short films; and this narrator comes close, but is not actually correct.
It's called Torsional Flexural Flutter. There's no need to invoke turbulence.
Yeah, the "Don't bite the hand that feeds you" saying. I too have seen many videos about that bridge collapsing and from what I can remember, most of the videos did mention that a dog was in that car but about half of the videos did not mention that the dog bit the guy who went out to try and get it out of the car before the bridge collapsed, but said that he was unable to get the dog out of the car before the bridge collapsed instead of the dog bit him and he had to give up on trying to rescue the dog.
And yet in 2000 in London a pedestrian bridge across the Thames designed by Norman Foster, one of the World's top guys in the field (he later did the one at MILLAU in France) had exactly the same problem and was closed on the day it opened. Took 2 years to strengthen it.
Yeah, I went down the Millennium Bridge rabbit hole a year or so ago. Similar problem but caused by very slight movement prompting people to begin walking in step, thereby increasing the oscillation. That rabbit hole is where I learned that soldiers stop marching in step when crossing bridges. Apparently many a sturdy bridge had been shaken apart by marching soldiers.
@@marthak1618 The Romans even worked that one out, always break step on a bridge.
Wasn't from wind effects though. So not the same problem at all. That was positive feedback phenomenon- synchronous lateral excitation -and was excerbated by 1,000+ people unconsciously shifting their walking step in phase with perturbations that originally started off very small (a few mm). But these minor perturbations rapidly grew and were immediately further amplified by the in-phase stepping of a thousand people to quickly become unsafe condition.
@@marthak1618 Yeah, the resonance frequency of the Millennium Bridge was very close to the frequency of the average human gait when walking.
@@bbbf09
Exactly... They took all of the most modern design steps, but the ultimate issue was something no one has seen before. Thankfully it was apparent that there was an issue, and after things like the Tacoma Narrows, that fatigue and resonance has been much more in engineers minds. Pedestrian induced vibrations, tho, that was a new one.
I remember seeing footage of the bridge when I was a kid back in the 1970’s. It gave me nightmares. The show also made it sound, at least to a young child, like he left the dog on purpose. That added to the nightmares. I still feel uneasy when I see the footage because of those vivid dreams, though I now understand about the dog.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse is something that I’ve been shown repeatedly in my educational career. The engineering disasters remind me of a truism: “If a doctor has a bad day and screws up, one person can die. If an Engineer has a bad day and screws up, 1,000 people can die.” I’ve always tried to remember that and engineer like I’m protecting a family of 5, and I’ve seen competitors who engineer like they’re protecting a wallet of $5.
The original firm on the Korean Sampoong Department store, Woosung, got kicked off the job when they refused to make the massive changes the owners wanted. You never hear about the company that had integrity, only the $5 wallet guys when the inevitable failure happens. My engineering 101 prof gave us that saying in his first lecture . I like your expression.
I grew up in the Seattle area and my dad loved telling this story for some reason (he thankfully would leave out the detail of the dog because otherwise my sisters and I would have cried-- RIP Tubby). Can't say it never passes through my mind whenever I drive across a suspension bridge on a windy day...
Let's talk now.....
"May your rainbow bridge never sway" got me right in the heart!!!
RIP Tubby. 🖤🦴
This was the first thing we covered in my engineering course for college. Never forgot how wild the swaying motion is from concrete.
A friend of my parents was a Civil Engineering student at Yale University during the late 1930s. His senior thesis dealt with suspension bridges. His main thesis was that they can become unstable under certain conditions. He claimed that that new bridge design being considered for the Tacoma Narrows had a potential to oscillate. He was immediately kicked out of the program. Yale was not going to give its blessing to a claim of such an absurd and consequential outcome. When it collapsed they sheepishly and with profuse apologies, reinstated him.
Wow
I really like how you pause to emphasize things in your videos. You're really great at what you do!!!
Yes, construction workers should name all bridges. 👍
That's a great idea, I love it. Certainly better than some politician and it would give the people a connection with it, too.
In my class we talk about this very accident and the causes. Yes the students are upset their was a dog in the car. I think more than if like 20 people died.
I have been across these many times, and I can vouch - the winds through that narrow waterway (with steep rising land on either side) is intense. Even just driving across the current bridges in a box truck is a little scary.
Can confirm. I've driven across the bridge in a delivery van many times, and it's terrifying during high winds. I'm always scared that a strong enough wind will push the van over! 😅
I'm a simple man. I see Answers With Joe, I watch it. No cap though the content from this channel has been a pretty routine part of my week for maybe two years now. I'm always looking forward to your shtuff. Thank ya
The Narrows bridge fell 5 years and 1 day before I was born. I've heard about "Galloping Gertie" all my life. I've traveled over the replacement bridge ever since it opened. I've even been over the "sister" bridge built alongside it. but only once. I'd rather take a ferry to get to the Kitsap Peninsula as the time and fuel saved works for me. Always fun to watch the film footage again. Thanks.
Okay, the footage of the bridge waving around like that seriously freaks me out. How on earth did people see that happening and still consider it safe to drive across??
You've met "people," right?
seeing this video is wild after literally driving over this bridge every single day
That was great! I have seen the documentary (actual film) in the late 70s. I don't remember hearing about poor Tubby or the engineer getting bitten. If you like engineering disasters, another of my favorites is the Hancock Tower aka the Plywood Skyscraper of Boston, MA. The movement of the building under wind loading caused it to bend enough that the huge glass windows were popping out. (Boston Harbor, very windy.) There are several nice videos on RUclips that I had not seen before. The building required substantial interior retrofit to remove the sway. The Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 is also noteworthy. And the Spruce Goose. The ASME was created in 1880 to make boilers safe when they were a main part of industry.
Suspension bridges weren’t new, the suspension bridge in the city where I grew up was opened in 1864 (it was actually designed in 1831, but took a while to raise funds etc.) - the Clifton Suspension bridge. Still open to two way car and truck traffic 150+ years later… What was new was cutting back the design to save money!
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City
Started in 1869
Completed in 1883
@Thomas Walsh Born in Weston Super Mare and bought up in Somerset!
I live in the city of Melbourne, Australia - specifically the outer western suburbs. To be able to access the city the quickest and most convenient route is to cross the Westgate Bridge. This bridge is massive (over double the length of the Sydney Harbour Bridge) and carries hundreds of thousands of vehicles over the Yarra River daily. Sadly During construction of the bridge in 1970, it collapsed killing 35 construction men including the head engineer of the project.
Its kind of eerie as you approach the western end of the bridge, knowing there are bodies still buried down there in the water.
Hello 👋 how are you?
Back in 1976 I had an engineering class at LSU that was led by a man named Boroslavsky ... IIRC.
In his charming old world accent he told us proudly,
"I helped design the Tacoma Narrows Bridge!!"
We all gaped silently. He continued ...
Ya, I designed the towers! They stayed up!"
:)
s
You'd think engineers learned valuable lessons from Tacoma bridge collapse and apply them in areas outside of building bridges. Nope. In the advent of transistorized electronic appliances, around late 1940's, manufacturers were baffled about the high DOA rate of products due to shipping. Everything outside the shell were perfectly OK but some components inside seem to just shear off at their legs. They knew it was transport related but had limited understanding of how it happens. This went on from 1950's to early 60's before engineers agreed to just glue down all the usual suspects. It would take another 15 years, with the availability of high speed cameras, before they could gain better understanding of how the failures happen. Nowadays, manufacturing plants have rigorous vibration testing as part of their production process.
Talking about resonance forces.
In the city i am from Manchester UK. There is a building known as Betham Gate Tower. When it gets especially windy. The air circulation unit on the top of the tower. Acts like a giant flute. And makes an exeedingly loud humming sound. So loud that it can be heard up to ten miles away.
I always wanted to learn more about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Thanks for the video Joe!
I've driven across the Narrows Bridge many many times. It is an exquisite example of beauty in form & function. The view from the bridge is breathtaking! Driving across, for me at least, is a major test of courage. I know it's completely safe still, I see 'Gurdy Galloping' the back of my mind and don't waste any time crossing.
Seriously, everything about the Pacific Northwest is beautiful. My favorite way to see the bridge is via AmTrack. The train follows the shoreline from South of Portland, Oregon all the way to Bellingham, Washington with stops in Vancouver, Tacoma & Seattle. The landscapes are breathtaking. You literally pass under the Narrows Bridge. I don't work for AM Track but since I have family near Seattle using the train is the ONLY way to make the trip.
I live in Seattle and would travel across the Tacoma Narrows bridge on occasion to our vacation cabin. Every single time I was white knuckled. From the height over the water. The narrow widths of the 2 lanes (each direction). And the cross winds coming along the water. They have since built a new bridge adjacent to the old one in which each bridge handles one direction of travel.
I remember taking the Narrows bridge before the second one was built. So dang narrow with the 2 way traffic. The only bridge in the northwest that ever made me feel less comfortable was Lion's Gate up in Vancouver.
I remember that Pittsburgh bridge collapse. I live in PA and know a few people in Pittsburgh. That was crazy. PA has the worst roads and bridges. We need all the help we can get.
I thought Joe would talk about Tuned Mass Dampers when he talked about buildings defenses against vibrations.
Those things are neat!
3:03 I like fairies they’re slow and fun and you know it’s a different experience than just no more driving you know and then feel that cool breeze from the water enjoying a sort of like a cruise a little bit different experience.
Putting a trillion dollars on something that required 6 trillion is just putting bandaids on things. We never learn
I literally finished reading “A Fountain of Paradise” by Arthur C Clarke where this bridge was compared to the design of the first space elevator, how it could all end in disaster, and history will never forget it.
Suspension bridges were anything but new when the Tacoma bridge was built; Cincinnati's Roebling bridge was finished in 1867. Zero automobiles drove across it for decades. Roebling also designed the later Brooklyn Bridge.
I drive the Tacoma Narrows every day. Growing up we constantly heard about Galloping Gertie and how she fell because there wasn't air flow. The replacement bridge has gaps with grates for air flow right in the roadway. When they decided to build a second bridge next to it they built it differently. There are no air gaps in the roadway. After hearing all of those stories growing up it was very weird to drive across the new second bridge and be able to actually change lanes.
We don't want everything named by construction workers. It's a bad idea. Take my word for it. I'm a construction worker.
I live just a few blocks from this bridge.... The new, second bridge is even more beautiful than the first one!
Wow 😳... hello 👋 how are you doing?
It's such a shame that the state legislature it didn't allow the bridge to be paid off in full recently with the surplus that we have just so that they can continue to collect tolls and draw out the repayment process and make as much money as possible for themselves and the toll company
I wouldn't be surprised if the toll company had managed to sneak some of their nonsense into previous infrastructure bills that effectively required the government to give them a share of any future pie. Maybe not, but that kind of stuff is so common it's not even surprising anymore and I absolutely hate that kind of crap... it's so blatantly anti-progress just for like 9 people to get stupid rich.
What?
@@veramae4098 the Washington state government recently had the opportunity to pay off the bridge and decided not to. Is this the misunderstanding?
How will maintenance be paid for?
Yeah everyone's all big on building the bridge but when it comes time to paint the thing ... not so much. Keep the tolls.
@@PadraigTomas it is called taxes. I hate the tolls because I do t cross enough to deal with getting a quick pass.
I love Mondays, it means a new vid from Joe Scott. It was 10 years ago that the an from the mentioned car washed up on the shore. Also, the ferries are a pleasure to take; they run often, give the driver a break (me), and are usually a time saver.
Thank you for doing a video on our fun, little bridge. I grew up outside of Tacoma in a town that will be destroyed by your previous Cascadia video aka "the Big One" (on a Washington kick? Lol) I remembered every time we'd cross the bridge I hoped it would sway (it never did), but you can sorta see pieces of Galloping Gertie.
Also, with your "doom and gloom" and Washington focus, you should look into Mt. Rainier. We're also overdue, and "when Little Sister speaks twice Big Brother answers"... just sayin' ;)
I cross the Mackinac Bridge that connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan which was completed in the mid-1950s. The two center lanes are metal grates that wind flows through. Driving on the grate causes your vehicle to "wiggle". Lots of tourists complain about this and stay on the outside concrete lanes. When I hear these complaints I refer those people to the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Joe talks about an unusual amount of Washington State related topics. I love it.
I'm pretty certain he lives in the Sea Tac area.
@@erisgh0sted961 He lives in Texas.
@@RRW359 ah, the more you know..
Thanks.
5:53 Holy crap, that is TERRIFYING, what the heck lmao
Hey Joe, I have never heard that story about the dog either. I lived just to the north of Seattle. I have driven across the bridge that replaced the one that fell down.
Now there are 2 bridges next to each other. Idk if you still around here
@@JusNoBS420, I only lived in Seattle for a short time in the mid 60's but I live in Thailand now and have been here for the past 15 years. I used to go to Southern California to visit my Mom each year for 3 months around Christmas but she died in 2016. I haven't been to America since then. I have no family left so Really have no reason to go any longer. Thailand is my home now.
@@theadventuresofbrockinthai4325 oh nice, always wanted to visit Thailand
Mondays are better because of these videos 😊
I loved that dog 🐶 😭
As someone who is terrified of bridges, seeing what’s supposed to be a solid bridge move like it’s a liquid is truly horrifying.
Only good thing about Mondays is Answers With Joe
I live near the narrows bridge and go over it everytime I see the doctor. It's essentially a wind tunnel similar to a valley and they are strong enough to make the water look like a smooth surface until you get to the shores. It's intense.
Tacoma is my hometown though we recently moved to Colorado and I miss it at times. We couldn't afford to live in WA any longer and my husband was offered a huge increase in income couldn't say no. Maybe one day we can move back.
psssst - so nobody hears - this is Not facebook.
There used to be a whole girder structure on the Bronx Whitestone bridge in NYC which I read somewhere we’re added in response to the Tacoma narrows bridge as the design was said to be similar. These girders then had to be removed about 20 yrs ago because they determined the extra weight would eventually cause the cables to fail prematurely.
I hope you don't just turn into a disaster channel. I really enjoy your other content too.
Hello, again, from Olympia, WA, one one generation away from the Tacoma Narrows collapse! I recall being terrified of crossing bridges when I was a kid, because The Narrows was all anyone talked about when bridges were brought up, and I didn't know where The Narrows were- to me, the floating bridge in Seattle was pretty narrow, but it seemed like it'd be pretty safe to fall from a floating bridge... So, as a kid, I thought the floating bridge was the answer the bridges collapsing.
I think I'm going to have to steal your description of the Puget Sound being a place where the Pacific ocean went all crazy, when talking to those from out of state, from now on...
last week it's Seattle, this week it's Tacoma.. what did Washingtonians do to you? 😂
I was a Washington resident for 15 years and lived in Tacoma for 4. That bridge will always be the most famous thing about the city, when in fact it needs remember for being where The Far Side's Gary Larson came from.
I didn't think you would lend such unwarranted validation for dangerous fiscal conservatism seen in this case.
Galloping Gerdie! I myself live on the Kitsap Peninsula, in Poulsbo, just North of Bainbridge Island where there's a ferry port and a really pretty and successful shopping area, and my Mother worked in Seattle on and off for many years and goes over to see doctors for her MS, and if we ever have to go to County Court, that's in Port Orchard, and I work in Bremerton -- navigating Puget Sound is a regular part of life for us, to the point tourists will hire locals to help them plan how to get places while they're here, to see the most of our sights. The Tacoma Narrows is a MAJOR thouroughfair here, and is one of the few ways to get from the peninsula to Tacoma and Seattle -- the other ways are driving all the way around, or taking one of our famous ferries. It's a beautiful place to live, but we also are a bit isolated from the rest of the state. We get to see orcas come through regularly, at least -- check out our whaling days if your ever in the area.
You're on a Pacific Northwest Kik(edit:(kick)Google thought I was looking for a Kik girlfriend). It's okay It happens to me too. Pretty soon you're going to have a video on the coast of Oregon. Love it!
wait.. is that a typo and meant to be "kick", or is "kik" a real word?!
(I'm not trying to be a pedantic twat, I'm genuinely curious!)
@@idontwantahandlethough hahah a I respect your curiosity. It was indeed a typo or a speak-o. I was using voice to text.
My 3x great grandfather, Isaac Crouse Sr., was a bridge builder who built many of the first bridges in London, Ontario. He and my 3x-great grandmother and 3 of her brothers settled in London in 1820, 6 years before London was even established as a village. He built several of the wooden bridges known as Blackfriars Bridge that kept on getting swept away during the yearly spring floods. In 1875 his son, Isaac Jr. built the wrought iron version of Blackfriars that still stand today (even though several years ago the road part of the bridge was changed from wooden boards to asphalt to help it last for another 100+ years, but the wrought iron structure is still the same metal that's been there since 1875). Isaac Jr. also started to build Meadowlily Bridge which is also still standing. He died before it was finished but his son Levi finished the build.
I wish I could say that I inherited the family "tradition", but my total lack of math skills have ruined any chance I'll ever have of doing anything that involves algebra/geometry/etc. I do have immense respect for bridge builders and their creations, though. Well, so long as their bridges don't kill any dogs.
Let's talk now...
A picture of this bridge was in a prominent position in the Civil Engineering department's at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a reminder that the overlooked little things, like damped harmonic motion, can lead to a disaster.
Pittsburgher here. Joe is correct when he said there could've been many more people on that bridge. Schools were delayed that morning because of weather and so the dozens of buses that cross that bridge were not on the road yet that morning.
The bridge had been closed to traffic. It wasn't operating when it collapsed.
@@tomstamford6837 i believe it was, there were a couple cars and a city bus on it when it collapsed
Also from the burgh here..
Jacob is correct. A bus and a couple of cars. You can goggle images of the collapse and see the vehicles on it.
This incident and the Hyatt Regency Hotel walkway collapse were shown in many of my engineering classes as examples of what can happen when you do things wrong.
they show it every single year in my material classes too lol
Pretty much shows that small design decisions can have big consequences.
A quote from one of my architecture lectures, which was given to him by his: "If you ever design something which falls down, make sure you're under it"
Oooooh, he's taking on something local for me!!!! What a thing to wake up to in the morning!!!
Thing about the "infrastructure bill" is that less than a tenth of it included anything even related to "infrastructure."
There would probably not be any controversy if it was a 1-page bill that said "Here, we earmark $XX,XXX to refurbishing bridges: XXXX, XXXX, XXXX."
You know? Not trying to sneak in bull shit under the guise of public work.
The Narrows Bridge is truly beautiful. They added a second span. Seattle is a great city, Tacoma is lovely with a zoo right on the water, restaurants with views of the Sound. Come visit u
I've always found this disaster fascinating
Urban myth in the PNW said a giant octopus took the original bridge down. I was terrified to go over the bridge as a kid until I learned what really happened 😅 But it’s pretty cool that giant pacific octopus live in the remains of galloping Gertie
The Narrows is down the street from me. Great video, Joe!
I've watched this footage many times over the years & my brain cells still can't fathom how steel & concrete can flop around w/o shattering & flying apart....so thanks, Joe -- please pardon me while I collapse.
no amount of money in are public transit and infrastructure will matter if we don't fix zoning and car dependency in citys
Truth
Well, since most Americans like their cars I guess that ain't gonna happen.
@@LG123ABC car dependenct citys are not the same as not having cars. in rural places they make sence. most Americans hate there cars and by hate i mean they could care less. they just don't know there's a way to have city's where you don't need a car and the city doesn't suck (new york and Chicago are terrible examples of public transit and zoning there just sadly some of the best examples in the us that shows how far behind we are) this is coming from a person who trained and worked as a mechanic, welder, and has owned 3 miatas, a camaro, 2 suberbans, and a bunch of other cars, and was born and raised in tx
Hey I can see those bridges out my window right now! Love your videos, Joe. Yes even the non doom-and-gloom ones.
Its so wierd seeing all the metal and asphalt twist and wave like a piece of laundry in the wind how does something so sollid and massive turn into something with "rubber properties"
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge and its untimely demise is seemingly in every school physics textbook.
Yes, we've totally learned to build bridges properly now .... except in London and the MIllenium Footbridge.
Sure, it was a different issue, but still embarrassing, though this is also funny.
I lived and worked in Tacoma for many years as a truck driver in the 1990's when it was still a single bridge spanning The Narrows. That bridge was scary to drive across in both a car or a big truck. In a car, you would focus on the grate roadway as you could see right through it to the water hundreds of feet bellow, and it would pull your wheels along the grooves. In a big truck, you had to stay in your very tight lane with a 2' guardrail that, if you hit, would only serve to tip your truck upside down into the water below. Now, there are two bridges parallel to each other that look completely different. It's an eyesore as they look completely out of place.
Very similar to this: the millenium bridge in london, that started to sway and swing up from people walking on it. They closed that one down and stiffened it, so its still around
The "BRRRPPCP"... the excuse me part at the end gave me a good laugh thanks Joe.
Imagine giving a speech begging people to support spending tax dollars on infrastructure, and infrastructure literally collapses right beforehand. And people STILL don't want to fix the damn bridges. Like wtf.
In my local city, there was an office that was tested before building to ensure it didn't create any dangerous wind interactions, but apparently on construction, they changed their mind and wanted the front door on the other street since it was situated on a corner. So they rotated the plans 90° and built it. This ended up creating a wind tunnel along the larger main street which ended up killing a couple people when it tipped a large truck, all because last second they wanted the building to have a different address to make it more "prestigious"
Let's talk now..