What Happened?
There is not one cause to the collapse of the Tacoma Bridge but a
chain of events that lead to the collapse.
- the wind was very strong:
65 to 75 km/hr
- the bridge subject to the strong winds, began to
undulate
- later the bridge began to vibrate
torsionally as well, giving it a
twisting motion
- the wind-induced torsional vibrations came into
resonance with the natural
frequency of the bridge, the
amplitude of the oscillations
grew large and caused the bridge to
collapse
