TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE

first suspension bridge across the Narrows of Puget Sound, connecting the Olympic Peninsula with the mainland of Washington, and a landmark failure in engineering history. Four months after its opening, on the morning of Nov. 7, 1940, in a wind of about 42 miles (68 km) per hour, the 2,800-foot (853-metre) main span, which had already exhibited a marked flexibility, went into a series of torsional oscillations the amplitude of which steadily increased until the convolutions tore several suspenders loose, and the span broke up. An investigation disclosed that the section formed by the roadway and stiffening-plate girders (rather than web trusses) did not absorb the turbulence of wind gusts; at the same time, the narrow, two-lane roadway gave the span a high degree of flexibility. This combination made the bridge highly vulnerable to aerodynamic forces, insufficiently understood at the time. The failure, which took no lives because the bridge was closed to traffic in time, spurred aerodynamic research and led to important advances. The plate girder was abandoned in suspension-bridge design; the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was replaced in 1950 by a new span stiffened with a web truss.