This day in history - November 7

[seamusTX]

1940 - The Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsed, three months after it opened.

The suspension bridge in the state of Washington was one of the longest in the world when it was built. It was based on a novel design that used much less material than the designs of earlier bridges like the Golden Gate.

From the time it opened, the bridge exhibited abnormal movement of the roadway. Residents nicknamed it "Galloping Gertie."

The wind set up resonant vibrations in the vertical cables that supported to the roadway, causing the roadway to literally oscillate and flex. Engineers were frantically trying to devise a solution, but eventually the magnitude of the vibration became so great that the bridge collapsed in a matter of seconds and was entirely destroyed.

A video is available here. If you haven't seen it, it's really worth taking a look.

- Jim

[NcongruNt]

Here's another good video (I couldn't see the one embedded in wikipedia).

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI[/youtube]

It boggles the mind that people are walking and driving on that bridge as the thing bucks around like that.

[seamusTX]

Thanks.

You could not have dragged me onto that bridge chained to a bulldozer. It had to be obvious that the roadway could not take much of that movement.

- Jim

[seamusTX]

1874 - Cartoonist Thomas Nast first symbolized the Republican Party as an elephant.

1916 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Rankin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

She was a Republican, radical pacifist, and feminist in the context of her time.

1917 - The Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian government.

1962 - Richard Nixon, after losing the California gubernatorial race, made the immortal proclamation, "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more."

1972 - President Richard Nixon was re-elected by the largest margin in modern history (60-40, IIRC).

Are these correlations eerie, or what?

- Jim