Technology Wanting – The Demise of the 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge

摘要

This paper presents the design of the2,800-ft (853 m) suspension bridge crossing theTacoma Narrows channel in the State ofWashington, which led to the destruction of thefour-month old structure from wind on November 7th1940. The-paper discusses the investigations of thecollapse; the disappointment at that time of notfinding a definitive cause, and briefly describes thehistory of bridge failures from wind and thedevelopment of technologies to prevent suchhappenings from wind from occurring again.