# Narrows Tacoma bridge-Full length video-where can I find copy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 2, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849 "2010-10-02T16:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/1 "2010-10-02T16:56:52Z")
A few years ago, maybe 10 or 15, I was watching a cable show about the Narrows Tacoma bridge collapse. This was better than the usual 15 second clip we see; this was a video documenting the collapse from the beginning wobbles, on through the final collapse. Of course, there were the usual edits to talk with an engineer, or somebody who was there that day, but, there was a substantial length of actual footage. IIRC, more than can be found on youtube, even. Does anybody know where I can get a copy, or what the name of the video is? Thanks, hh ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/2 "2010-10-02T17:07:42Z")
You’re probably talking about the 4 minute long clip from the Stillman Fires archives. One of the craziest things is you can see a guy walk across it right before it finally collapses! (I’m a stock footage researcher and we have this tape in our database.) ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/3 "2010-10-02T17:37:45Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > You’re probably talking about the 4 minute long clip from the Stillman Fires archives. One of the craziest things is you can see a guy walk across it right before it finally collapses! > > [http://www.archive.org/details/Pa2096Tacoma](http://www.archive.org/details/Pa2096Tacoma) > > (I’m a stock footage researcher and we have this tape in our database.) IIRC, he was the driver of the car that was stuck on the bridge. Trying to drive across while it was bucking says something about his sanity, but he wasn’t out for a stroll. - **ODF** , bawn ‘n’ bred in the Armpit of the Northwest ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/4 "2010-10-02T17:58:13Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > You’re probably talking about the 4 minute long clip from the Stillman Fires archives. One of the craziest things is you can see a guy walk across it right before it finally collapses! > > [http://www.archive.org/details/Pa2096Tacoma](http://www.archive.org/details/Pa2096Tacoma) > > (I’m a stock footage researcher and we have this tape in our database.) That clip right there has more footage than I’ve ever seen before. Most times you see it, it just has clips of the bridge opening ceremony, swaying, the swaying with the car, sometimes the guy walking, and the bit where the deck comes down. And there always seems to be a gap where they show the swaying, and then the deck is in already in mid-fall. Also, I notice that in this clip, the deck appears to break up and heave up to the left of the frame, while the shot of the deck falling shows the supports on the left and the deck falling off to the right. In all the other clips I’ve seen, I’ve never seen the heave shot, the supports were always extreme right in the shot, and the deck was always falling to the left of the supports. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/5 "2010-10-02T18:04:00Z")
I’ve always thought that was film from the San Francisco Quake! Can someone give me a link to the story of this collapse? It’s a pain from my iPod. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/6 "2010-10-02T18:07:39Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > I’ve always thought that was film from the San Francisco Quake! Can someone give me a link to the story of this collapse? It’s a pain from my iPod. Thanks! The [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_%281940%29) has a good summary. Basically, due to design flaws, wind caused the bridge to resonate violently, until it fell apart. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/7 "2010-10-02T23:43:49Z")
The [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_%281940%29) states that > [@](#): > > Elliot’s original films of the construction and collapse of the bridge were shot on 16 mm [Kodachrome film](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodachrome), but most copies in circulation are in black and white because newsreels of the day copied the film onto 35 mm black-and-white stock. Is that color footage available to view anywhere? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/8 "2010-10-03T00:02:05Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > > [@singular1](#): > > > > I’ve always thought that was film from the San Francisco Quake! Can someone give me a link to the story of this collapse? It’s a pain from my iPod. Thanks! > > The [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_%281940%29) has a good summary. Basically, due to design flaws, wind caused the bridge to resonate violently, until it fell apart. I learned the resonance story as an undergraduate, but the link you provided (and others) actually point toward something different, aerodynamic flutter (something I hadn’t heard of before today). As I understand it (and I probably don’t) the wind constantly created torsion in the bridge, which would normally dissipate. But under unusually heavy wind the torsion was unable to dissipate, and instead increased until the bridge twisted itself apart. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/9 "2010-10-03T00:42:18Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Is that color footage available to view anywhere? I went college not too far from there. Someone I knew bought an old camera that he claimed (or the guy who sold it to him claimed) that it was the one that took that footage of the bridge. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I learned the resonance story as an undergraduate, but the link you provided (and others) actually point toward something different, aerodynamic flutter (something I hadn’t heard of before today). As I understand it (and I probably don’t) the wind constantly created torsion in the bridge, which would normally dissipate. But under unusually heavy wind the torsion was unable to dissipate, and instead increased until the bridge twisted itself apart. The way I heard it, the bridge always moved in a strong wind (earning the nickname “Galloping Gertie”), but it moved in different ways. Before the collapse, it would move up and down only. (That is, as you moved along the bridge, you’d be going uphil, then downhill, as the bridge oscillated.) I think the twisting motion was new on the day it came down. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/10 "2010-10-03T01:06:19Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > The way I heard it, the bridge always moved in a strong wind (earning the nickname “Galloping Gertie”), but it moved in different ways. Before the collapse, it would move up and down only. (That is, as you moved along the bridge, you’d be going uphil, then downhill, as the bridge oscillated.) I think the twisting motion was new on the day it came down. Well-commented. The torsion apparently resulted from a cable that snapped that day, destabilizing the bridge in an uneven way. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/11 "2010-10-03T01:19:30Z")
Oh, and it’s “Tacoma Narrows”, not “Narrows Tacoma.” The bridge spans a set of narrows in the city/region of Tacoma. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/12 "2010-10-03T01:47:32Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Oh, and it’s “Tacoma Narrows”, not “Narrows Tacoma.” The bridge spans a set of narrows in the city/region of Tacoma. I get worried when someone with your username writes about bridges. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/13 "2010-10-03T02:37:09Z")
Thanks for posting that link. I’ve seen a shorter version of that film hundreds of times. I don’t ever remember watching that long version. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/14 "2010-10-03T02:46:26Z")
I’ve always been surprised at how far concrete can flex without breaking as shown in this clip. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/15 "2010-10-03T03:16:25Z")
I always thought it was amusing that an insurance agent had pocketed the premiums for the insurance on the bridge. I mean, he must have thought “how could a bridge collapse?" ---
**Author:** ![Not\_a\_Platypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/16 "2010-10-03T03:48:14Z")
Huh, that’s a neat video. I admit I thought it’d collapsed a hell of a lot more recently than 1940. The Narrows still makes me nervous, even though I’ve driven across it without incident and the old one collapsed way before I was born. On preview: Ha! I just realized I was born on the 44th anniversary of it’s collapse. Maybe that’s why I get nervous… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/17 "2010-10-03T04:23:58Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I’ve always been surprised at how far concrete can flex without breaking as shown in this clip. Aye. That bridge was flexing way beyond what seems possible. I mean fucking hell it eventually collapsed, but imagine the strain on the cables. And there’s a chap walking back from his car! Run, dude, run! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/18 "2010-10-03T05:23:11Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > IIRC, he was the driver of the car that was stuck on the bridge. Trying to drive across while it was bucking says something about his sanity, but he wasn’t out for a stroll. From accounts I’ve read, the car belonged to a reporter who abandoned it when the bridge’s motion got too violent. His dog, Tubby, was in the car and was too frightened to come out. An engineering professor, F.B. Farquharson (I am not making that name up!), who had been studying the bridge since its construction was the man seen walking off the bridge in the film footage, just before it fell. He had tried to rescue Tubby from the car, but was unsuccessful. Tubby was the only casualty of the bridge’s collapse. ☹ [There is a lot of interesting information here.](http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/tnbhistory/Connections/connections3.htm) Does anyone remember the Pioneer commercial from about 15 years ago, where a guy in a convertible is driving across a bridge and he puts a CD in his Pioneer car stereo and cranks the volume up? The next shot is a clip of the Tacoma Narrows bridge in full oscillation. Then the next shot is of the guy turning his stereo down. He looks around sheepishly and says, “Sorry!.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/19 "2010-10-03T05:48:54Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > And there’s a chap walking back from his car! Run, dude, run! He wanted to, but the shaking was so bad that he couldn’t move very quickly if he didn’t want to fall flat on his face. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849/20 "2010-10-03T17:40:57Z")
At the Point Defiance Zoo (in Tacoma) they have a piece of the original wreckage in the aquarium, with information about the animals that live on and around it. More than once I have heard parents telling their kids about how the bridge came down in an earthquake. :smack: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narrows-tacoma-bridge-full-length-video-where-can-i-find-copy/555849.md?page=2)