You've probably seen it. It’s that grainy, flickering footage of a massive suspension bridge twisting like a piece of salt water taffy. A tiny black car sits abandoned on the heaving asphalt. A man crawls along the curb, desperate to reach safety while the world literally bends beneath him.
The video of Tacoma Narrows Bridge is basically the "OG" viral disaster video. Long before YouTube or TikTok, this 1940 film was traumatizing engineering students and fascinatng the general public. It’s a clip that feels wrong—physics shouldn't work that way. Bridges are supposed to be solid, rigid things. Yet there is "Galloping Gertie," behaving more like a skipping rope than a multi-million dollar piece of infrastructure.
Honestly, even in 2026, the footage hasn't lost its power to make your stomach drop.
The Camera Scoop of the Century
Most people assume the footage was captured by a news crew that just happened to be there. Not quite. The most famous shots were actually taken by Barney Elliott, who owned a local camera shop in Tacoma. He wasn’t looking for a Pulitzer; he just knew the bridge was acting "weird" that morning and grabbed his Bell & Howell 16mm camera.
Elliott used the new (and very expensive) Kodachrome color film. That's why, if you look for the high-res versions today, you can see the terrifyingly blue water of the Puget Sound and the stark contrast of the bridge's steel.
It wasn't just him, though. Professor F.B. Farquharson from the University of Washington was also on the scene. He had been studying the bridge's "bounce" for months. In the video, you can actually see Farquharson—he’s the guy walking out onto the undulating deck, trying to rescue a dog trapped in that lone car.
Why Did It Actually Fall? (It’s Not Just Resonance)
If you took a high school physics class, your teacher probably told you the bridge fell because of "resonance." They likely compared it to a singer breaking a wine glass with a high note.
Well, they were kinda wrong.
The real culprit was something called aeroelastic flutter. It’s a bit more complex than simple resonance. Basically, the bridge's design was too thin. The lead engineer, Leon Moisseiff, wanted something elegant and slender. He used 8-foot-tall solid steel girders instead of the traditional 25-foot deep open trusses.
When the wind hit those solid girders on November 7, 1940, it couldn't pass through. Instead, it created "vortices"—swirls of air—above and below the deck. This created a feedback loop. The bridge would twist, which changed how the wind hit it, which made it twist even harder.
It was a self-exciting cycle of destruction. The wind that day was only about 42 mph. That's a stiff breeze, sure, but a bridge of that size should have handled it easily. Because of the flutter, the bridge basically "flew" itself into pieces.
The Tragedy of Tubby the Dog
The most heartbreaking part of the video of Tacoma Narrows Bridge is the story of Tubby. He was a three-legged Cocker Spaniel belonging to Leonard Coatsworth, a reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune.
Coatsworth was the man you see in the footage crawling away from the car. He tried to get Tubby out, but the dog was terrified and bit him. Coatsworth had to leave him behind to save his own life. Professor Farquharson also tried a rescue, but the bridge was twisting at a 45-degree angle by then.
When the center span finally snapped and plunged 210 feet into the water, Tubby was still inside the car. He was the only fatality of the disaster.
Why the Video Still Matters in 2026
We live in an era of CGI and deepfakes, but there's an authenticity to the Tacoma Narrows footage that hits different. It serves as a permanent "humility check" for engineers.
After the collapse, the entire field of bridge aerodynamics changed. You’ll notice that modern suspension bridges, like the ones that replaced Gertie in 1950 and 2007, have massive open trusses or "grated" decks. This lets the wind pass through instead of pushing the structure around.
Every time a new engineering student watches that bridge rip apart like wet cardboard, they’re learning the cost of prioritizing aesthetics over aerodynamic stability.
Key Facts About the Collapse
- Opened: July 1, 1940
- Collapsed: November 7, 1940 (only four months later)
- Main Span: 2,800 feet
- Nickname: Galloping Gertie (due to its vertical "bounce" during construction)
- Cost to build: Roughly $6.4 million in 1940 dollars
What You Can Do Next
If you want to go deeper into this piece of history, there are a few things worth doing beyond just re-watching the 2-minute clip on loop.
1. Watch the "Lost Angle" Documentary
A few years ago, "new" footage emerged that shows the collapse from a different perspective. It gives a much better sense of the scale of the Puget Sound and just how isolated the bridge felt in those final moments.
2. Visit the Sky Museum (Virtually or in Person)
The remains of Galloping Gertie are still at the bottom of the Tacoma Narrows. It’s actually one of the largest man-made reefs in the world. While you can't dive there easily due to the insane currents (the same ones that made building the bridge a nightmare), there are high-def sonar maps online that show exactly how the wreckage sits today.
3. Look up "Aeroelastic Flutter" in Modern Aircraft
This isn't just a bridge problem. Pilots and aerospace engineers still deal with this. Looking up videos of "wing flutter" tests will show you that the same physics that took down a bridge can still rip the wings off a plane if the math isn't perfect.
The video of Tacoma Narrows Bridge isn't just a disaster movie. It's a 16mm reminder that nature doesn't care about our "elegant" designs if we don't respect the wind.