Tacoma Narrows Bridge history

1929

February: Legislature authorizes a Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

1938

November: Construction begins on the first Narrows Bridge.

1940

May: Two months before completion, workers notice a bounce or "galloping" of the bridge in winds as light as 4 mph. Some chew on lemons to combat nausea.

June: Carpenter Fred Wilde dies of a head injury after falling 12 feet. Days later, a bridge worker falls 190 feet into the water and survives.

July: Opening ceremony. Engineers proclaim no danger in the $6.6 million bridge's "bounce." Tolls: 55 cents one-way for car and driver, 10 cents per passenger.

Nov. 7: Just 4 months old, "Galloping Gertie" collapses. In gusts of 42 mph, the roadway at 10 a.m. begins a lateral twisting motion. An hour later, a 600-foot section of road in the western half of the center span breaks free and falls into the water. Minutes later, the rest of the central span falls.

1943

June: The bridge's tear-down and salvage operation is complete. Steel is reused to help relieve shortages during World War II.

1948

April: Construction begins on the second Narrows Bridge.

May: Robert E. Drake, a carpenter working on the west anchorage, is killed when a boom falls on him. His death is the first of four fatalities on the construction project.

1950

April: Lawrence "Stuart" Gale, an ironworker, dies during deck construction when a temporary weld gives way and he plummets 180 feet into the water.

June: Ironworker Glen "Whitey" Davis dies in a fall from the bridge deck.

July: Welder Ray Bradley dies of electrocution or a heart attack.

October: After 30 months of construction and a cost of $14 million, the new Narrows Bridge opens. Tolls are 50 cents for car and driver one-way and 10 cents per passenger.

1951

January-March: The bridge withstands several storms, with winds up to 75 mph.

1965

May: Tolls are removed.

2002

Oct. 5: Groundbreaking ceremony for the new, $849 million Narrows Bridge, to be built south of the 1950 bridge.

2007

July 15: Opening ceremonies. New bridge will carry traffic east toward Tacoma. The old will carry traffic west toward Gig Harbor. First-year tolls are $3 round-trip, cut to $1.75 for motorists who pay electronically with a transponder on the windshield.

Sources: State Department of Transportation and Richard Hobbs, author of "Catastrophe to Triumph: Bridges of the Tacoma Narrows"