Tacoma Narrows Bridge Brochure

The original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, instantly nicknamed "Galloping Gertie" for its alarming undulations, opened July 1, 1940 and collapsed November 7, 1940 — just four months later — in 40 mph winds. The failure, filmed by University of Washington professor F.B. Farquharson (listed on this brochure as "In Charge of Model Tests"), became one of engineering's defining disasters. Its core problem: solid plate girders on the sides of the roadway acted like a sail, catching wind and twisting the deck into oscillations it couldn't damp. The replacement was designed with open stiffening trusses (a lattice of steel allowing wind to pass through rather than push) and perforations in the roadway deck itself.

Construction on the second bridge ran 1948–1950, administered by the Washington Toll Bridge Authority under Governor Arthur B. Langlie, who chaired the Authority. Langlie was in his second term as governor (1949–1957), having previously served as mayor of Seattle. The consulting board assembled for the rebuild included Glenn B. Woodruff and Theodore von Kármán, both of whom had also served on the federal investigation panel after the 1940 collapse. Von Kármán's vortex-shedding theory — that alternating whirlpools of air caused the original bridge to resonate like a tuning fork — remains the most-cited popular explanation, even though the official report considered it "very improbable" as the primary cause. Dexter R. Smith, listed as lead design engineer, had reportedly predicted the first bridge would fail under precisely those wind conditions, to an unreceptive audience, months before it did.

Page 2 documents the underwater foundation work. A caisson (a hollow, watertight box lowered through the water until it settles on the riverbed, then filled with concrete to form a pier base) is shown in two cross-sections: first the floating "false bottom" version used to position the structure, then the completed tower pier with labeled layers — timber fender, wooden sheathing, water-filled cells, anchor cables, sand and gravel, and a steel cutting edge at the bottom. The east tower photograph is captioned with the exact completion date: April 22, 1949. The bridge opened October 14, 1950, collecting tolls of 50 cents one-way.