Tacoma Narrows Bridge

In the month of July in 1940, The Tacoma Narrows Bridge construction was completed and open to the public. Although built upon request of the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce after arguing that building of the bridge would be more suitable to replace the ferry system that as the only way to get to the Gig harbour from Tacoma's Narrow Bridge. One of the downsides was that it had been constructed with a much lesser budget than the committee had expected even upon the request of various engineers to draw…

Verrazano Narrows Bridge – 1964 Figure 9 Tacoma Narrows Bridge now known as Verrazano Narrows Bridge During Failure Taken From: (Wikipedia, 2015) Leap 6: Wind The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened in 1940 but the design had a flaw. When the bridge deck was subjected to minor winds the deck moved up and downwards and began twisting, the bridge eventually collapsed. Peter Sluszka, a qualified bridge engineer explained that, aerodynamic instability of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge had to do with the…

First, will look at the sinking of the Titanic of 1912 and well this is not the first ever engineering disaster it is normally where most people start. “RMS Titanic was a British passenger ship that sank after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton (United Kingdom) to New York City, in April 1912. Titanic was at the time the largest ship ever built and was considered to be unsinkable. The tragedy claimed the lives of over 1,500 people. Many factors contributed to the…

gate bridge is one of the most famous suspension bridges in the world. It spans the golden gate strait which is a mile wide and three miles long. It is seen as one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It is also one of the internationally recognized symbols of America and to be precise San Francisco. Nearly 112 000 vehicles cross the bridge daily. Although the bridge is one of the biggest engineering marvels and over 13 engineers work on the bridge it…

One of the great things about technology is that it saves more lives then we will ever know. Many lives took tolls before technology because we couldn’t sense anything like we do now. We can now see where storms will hit before they’re even a week old and we can announce the news so anybody in danger can seek shelter elsewhere out of the storm’s path. With the technology we have today, we could have prevented many people killed during the storm on Armistice Day. The loss of lives because of the…

generating a vibrational response. This phenomenon plays a significant role in the design of common engineering structures such as bridges, oceanic structures, offshore drilling risers, cables, heat exchangers and numerous other engineering applications. VIV’s have been known to have a detrimental impact on structural fatigue lifespans with the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge serving as the textbook example. While not solely attributed to VIV’s [1], this structural failure was highly…