Walkabout With Wheels Blog: Our Drive to Blaine, Washington

SKP Park at 8:57 am.

We head south on
Washington State Route 3.

We're traveling in the rain, again.

We drive along Puget Sound.

I've got a fist full of money to pay
the Tacoma Narrows Bridge toll.

$10.50 for the motorhome
pulling the Jeep... not bad.

I love to take pictures

of bridges.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, built in 1940, became famous because it had "bounce." It was nicknamed "Gallopin' Gertie." Engineers studied the "bounce" and wind deflectors were being added to the bridge when strong winds blew in from the southeast during the early morning hours of November 7, 1940. The bridge started to undulate. Winds from the south increased to 42 miles per hour. Just after 10 am, the bridge started to twist laterally. Within minutes a section of the bridge had twisted to a 45 degree angle. Every five seconds the deck of the bridge rose and twisted. The winds slowed and the bridge's swaying and twisting slowed. The winds picked up and by 11 am the bridge deck twisting was extreme. At 11:02 a six hundred foot of concrete bridge decking fell. Wires began to snap. The bridge was being ripped apart and was falling into the narrows.

On October 14, 1950, "Sturdy Gertie" opened at the Tacoma Narrows with great fanfare. The new bridge carried traffic across the narrows safely. All good things come to an end.... "Sturdy Gertie" was replaced in 2007.