EVENT
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
The November 7, 1940 collapse of a suspension bridge in Washington State, destroyed by aerodynamic resonance in a forty-two-mile-per-hour wind — the canonical twentieth-century demonstration that progressive optimization of a proven design can consume the margin that protected against the phenomena the theory did not include.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened on July 1, 1940, as the third-longest suspension span in the world. It began to oscillate in wind almost immediately. Drivers reported a "galloping" sensation. On November 7, a wind of forty-two miles per hour — within the range the bridge should have comfortably withstood by any calculation available at the time — excited a torsional resonant frequency in the deck. The oscillations grew until the structure tore itself apart. Film footage of the collapse, with the bridge deck twisting like a ribbon, became one of the most widely viewed engineering failures in history. The designer, Leon Moisseiff, was among the most accomplished suspension bridge engineers alive. His design reflected the state of the art. It was destroyed by a phenomenon the state of the art did not include.
In The You On AI Field Guide
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