Famous Bridge Mishaps and Collapses 1 Dangerous and Disruptive
Tacoma Narrows Bridge (USA)
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Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse is one of the world’s most famous bridge disasters, most When a bridge falls down, it’s usually news notably because it was actually worthy. Apart from being spectacular to filmed! In fact, you can see this witness and dangerous to the people on amazing footage on You Tube the bridge at the time, it can be extremely (www.youtube.com). So, what disruptive to people’s lives. In recent times, happened? The Tacoma Narrows the most famous bridge mishaps have been Bridge was built to link the city the ones in which video footage of them of Tacoma with Gig Harbor in collapsing has been available. Although any Washington State. Even before bridge collapsing is a very serious incident, it the bridge was finished, engineers can serve a useful purpose for engineers to noticed that when a breeze learn from mistakes in future construction blew, the road bridge rolled up and maintenance. and down. Even after making modifications, they were unable to fix the problem. The local residents nicknamed the bridge ‘Galloping Gertie’. Normally, you would expect that this would scare people away, but in fact, the opposite was true. The centre road span rolled and twisted and thousands of people flocked to experience the bridge ride of a lifetime. Although the authorities remained confident that the bridge was safe, on November 7th, 1940, just four months after opening, it collapsed. Before the bridge collapsed, the police became concerned about its increasing violent and constant motions and closed the bridge. An hour after it was closed, the bridge began to fall apart and then plunged into the Puget Sound waters below, where Your Task Describe the Last Moments it remains today. In 1950, a new Tacoma Narrows Bridge Have a look at the breathtaking footage of the was built in its place. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse local residents named this bridge ‘Sturdy Gertie’. The www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxTZ446tbzE Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse taught engineers Imagine that you are the last person on the bridge. an invaluable lesson about Describe this moment as you scramble to safety bridge aerodynamics, that before the bridge finally collapses. was not properly understood before.
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