Today in History: Bridge collapses only four months after construction
The sole casualty of the disaster was a Cocker Spaniel which fell into the Narrows and disappeared beneath the foam.
On this day in 1940, only four months after its completion, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapsed.
When it opened, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the third-longest suspension bridge in the world. Built to replace the ferry system that took commuters from Tacoma across the Tacoma Narrows to the Gig Harbor Peninsula, the bridge spanned 850m and took three years to build.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened with great fanfare on 1 July 1940. Human traffic across the waters of the Tacoma Narrows increased dramatically, but many drivers were drawn to the toll bridge not by convenience but by an unusual characteristic of the structure.
When moderate to high winds blew, as they invariably do in the Tacoma Narrows, the bridge roadway would sway from side to side and sometimes suffer excessive vertical undulations. Some drivers reported that vehicles ahead of them would disappear and reappear several times as they crossed the bridge.
Attempts to stabilise the structure were in vain as on 7 November, with a steady wind blowing at 67km/h, the roadway began to twist back and forth in an increasingly violent fashion. Before closing the span, the toll-keeper on the bridge’s west side let one last motorist, Tacoma News Tribune copy editor Leonard Coatsworth, pass.
Halfway across the bridge, Coatsworth lost control of his car. When the roadway tipped so sharply that it seemed his car would topple off, he decided to flee on foot. He tried to retrieve his daughter’s black Cocker Spaniel from the back seat of the car, but the dog snapped at him and refused to budge.
Coatsworth ran to safety and called the Tribune, who dispatched a reporter and photographer to the scene. Tribune photographer Howard Clifford was the last man on the bridge before the centre span broke off at 11am and plunged 57m into the turbulent Tacoma Narrows. Trapped on the suddenly destabilised side span, he narrowly avoided being thrown off and ran to safety.
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