Sudden Realization.. I've walked across a bridge that was of similar design to the old Tacoma Narrows bridge we all lear

[cbelt3]

And we learned WRONG.

Older News article (2015)
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...tudy-says/

Math paper:
https://www.ma.utexas.edu/mp_arc/c/13/13-25.pdf

The bridge ? Deer Isle bridge in Maine (near Bar Harbor. I went to a high society summer camp in Maine in my early teens for several years. My parents got rid of me, grandparents paid for it so I would connect with 'the right people', but I didn't, because they were all jerks...

I recall walking across that bridge many times, looking down through the expanded mesh pedestrian deck at the waters 100 feet below, and feeling the bridge shudder in the wind and the stays and cables 'sing' their song of doom. Talk about your adrenaline rush !

[Article Accelerator]

While the cited paper undergoes peer review, it seems that the currently accepted explanation is the last alternate (5.4) the paper discussed, i.e. aeroelastic flutter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Nar...)#Collapse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroelasticity#Flutter

[jdc]

So I read that whole "math paper" and re-ddid the same calculations myself, and Im telling I think it was

[pdq]

Shake, rattle and roll...

[ka jowct]

You'd want to be wearing your brown pants if you were out in the middle of that span.

[rz]

I loved watching the film loop of that in grade school. I've had the opportunity to drive over the "new" Tacoma Narrows bridge several times.

[max]

[lost in space]

Yep, vortex shedding set 'er off, I'd wager.