Swing and Sway
Eighty years ago this week, on November 7, 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a high wind. The span began experiencing wavelike motions during its construction, and as those oscillations steadily increased, civil engineers puzzled over ways to dampen them. Motion-picture cameras, used to document the bridge's bizarre twists and turns, eventually captured its demise, and those films have been used in engineering schools ever since as a visual lesson in how not to build a bridge.
The bridge was one of the first projects overseen by the recently created Washington Toll Bridge Authority. Just four months before its collapse, some 10,000 people had attended the new span's dedication ceremonies and marveled at its slender structure. The following day the ferry Kalakala -- then celebrating its fifth birthday -- was brought in for the final Tacoma Narrows ferry run. As it passed underneath the bridge, some passengers might have noticed the slight oscillations in the span above them. Over the next four months those oscillations became more extreme.
Some people enjoyed the thrill of driving over Galloping Gertie, but those with weak stomachs avoided it altogether. The last car to attempt the crossing belonged to Leonard Coatsworth, a Tacoma reporter, who lost control of his vehicle as the bridge began to break up. Coatsworth ran from the car. He and a UW civil-engineering professor who had been monitoring the bridge attempted to rescue Coatsworth's dog, Tubby, who was freaking out in the back seat, but were unsuccessful. The bridge came crashing down into Puget Sound. Tubby was the only fatality.
Planning began on a replacement bridge, but World War II intervened and it wasn't until 1950 that a new span crossed the Narrows, much to the relief of commuters in Tacoma, Gig Harbor, and beyond. This Sturdy Gertie has served traffic well ever since, and in 2007 was joined by a sister span.
Veterans Day
When World War I ended on November 11, 1918, many hoped it would secure democracy around the globe and end all war. When America entered the three-year-old European conflict on April 6, 1917, some 50,000 Seattleites showed their support with an impromptu parade. One elderly local veteran of the Civil War even tried to enlist. Thousands of knitters made clothing for the troops, other citizens in the San Juan Islands and elsewhere around the state also pitched in to aid the war effort, and William Boeing scrambled to win his airplane company's first defense contract.
As the nation celebrated its first Armistice Day in 1919, World War I veterans in the new American Legion decided to evict the IWW from its office in Centralia. The Wobblies were ready, and four attackers were killed in the gun battle. An irate mob later hauled Wobbly Wesley Everest from the town jail and lynched him from a bridge over the Chehalis River. The Centralia Massacre is remembered today by a monument to the fallen legionnaires in a city park. As recently as 2019, plans for a memorial to Wesley Everest and the IWW were still hotly disputed.
On the third Armistice Day, in 1921, the Seattle Garden Club planted the first 25 elm trees that now line Des Moines Memorial Way. Other communities held their own commemorations, and many have monuments in honor of the citizens who gave their lives in service of their country. In 1938 Armistice Day was officially made a legal public holiday. In 1954, after many American men and women had served in World War II and the Korean War, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor our veterans of all wars.
