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Cautionary Tales · September 15, 2020 · 36m
The Bridge That Danced Itself to Death
Cautionary Tales
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse of 1940 — when a suspension bridge began swaying in moderate wind and tore itself apart within hours. Harford examines how engineers confused 'has never failed' with 'cannot fail.'
Highlights
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The absence of failure is not evidence of safety — it may be evidence of untested conditions
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge passed every engineering test. It simply hadn't been tested in the specific wind conditions that destroyed it. Past stability was confused with inherent stability.•
Spectacular failures produce more learning than quiet successes — the Tacoma Narrows collapse transformed bridge engineering
The dramatic film footage of the bridge's collapse (shot by a nearby camera store owner) became the most-watched engineering failure in history and fundamentally changed how bridges are designed.