The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was designed by Leon Moisseiff in 1938, which was the

connection between Seattle and Tacoma with the nearby Puget Sound Navy Yard. In
Moisseiff's mind, he wanted to design a bridge that is cheaper, longer and sleeker. The bridge
earned its other nickname Galloping Gertie soon after completion because of the oscillation
of the deck during construction. Even after completion oscillation could be felt and seen even
in modest windy day. On 7
th
November 1940, four months after completion day, the world
third longest suspension bridge at that time collapsed under relatively slow wind compare
with the designed withstand. Luckily no fatality was caused by this incident. The Public
Works Administration (PWA) and Federal Works Agency (FWA) assembled a group of
engineers to investigate, which it is called Carmody Board. This report will give an overview
of the failure, the reasons for the failure and the lessons learned from the event.

Description of Failure
On the 7
th
of November 1940 the bridge displayed
twisting (shown in figure 1) that gradually
increased. The first sign of failure was recorded
shortly before 11:00 a.m. when a chunk of concrete
dropped out of the roadway. Shortly after the
bridge collapsed in the manor displayed in figure 2.
The main cables were damaged due to the severe
stress, many suspender cables were broken. The
bridge deck had major structural damage with the
middle section laying in the bottom of the narrows,
the remainder was bent and overstressed. The
towers showed slight buckling with permanent
distortion due to the high stress.
All these parts were beyond repair and was turned
into scrap metal.

Figure 1. Moments before the failure
Figure 2. Bridge failure
Lessons learnt
The major error that happened during the design was the lack of importance of wind as a factor.
Previous bridges before designers believed that failures occurred due to mainly due to heavy traffic
loading and poor workmanship. Suspension bridges now are designed to be aerodynamically stable
and are tested in wind tunnels. Ethically if theoretical knowledge is weak, adequate experimental
knowledge should be supplemented if that is also weak it should be expanded. Designs should not
be proposed if they lack an adequate and complete theoretical and/or experimental knowledge
base.

http://failures.wikispaces.com/Tacoma+Narrows+Collapse
http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/tacoma/tacoma.html
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/TNBhistory/Machine/machine3.htm
http://www.engineergirl.org/File.aspx?id=4261
http://www.cedengineering.com/upload/Ethical%20Issues%20Tacoma%20Narrows.pdf
http://www.enm.bris.ac.uk/anm/tacoma/tac09.gif