Tacoma Narrows bridge (was: MySQL v. PostgreSQL ...)

Ray Cote rgacote at AppropriateSolutions.com
Tue Jul 31 16:23:29 EDT 2007


At 2:54 PM -0400 7/31/07, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>On Tuesday 31 July 2007 01:14:40 pm Ben Scott wrote:
>>  On 7/31/07, Bill Sconce <sconce at in-spec-inc.com> wrote:
>>  > (Bridges give us some EXCELLENT examples of
>>  > what happens when an engineer goes a little bit amateur.  You've probably
>>  > seen a video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge coming apart.)
>>
>>    In fairness to the engineers behind the Tacoma Narrows bridge, I
>>  haven't seen anything which suggested they didn't know what they were
>>  doing.  Everything I've seen stated that the resonance which built up
>>  due to wind was unprecedented in the Civil Engineering world.  It had
>>  simply never been encountered or even considered before.  According to
>>  Wikipedia, the designer of the TN bridge, Leon Moisseiff, was also a
>>  major contributor to the engineering of the Golden Gate Bridge.  So
>>  "Galloping Gertie" is not so much about amateurism, but unforeseen
>>  consequences.  Of course, most of us are familiar with *those*,
>>  too....
>
>Ooh, ooh, everyone who's driven across the Tacoma Narrows bridge multiple
>times raise your hand!

The twin for the Tacoma Narrows bridge is not that far down the road, 
in Deer Isle Maine.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Isle,_Maine>

"...bridge does bounce up and won on windy days..."
I'll say it does. Has an interesting sway to it as well.

--Ray
-- 

Raymond Cote
Appropriate Solutions, Inc.
PO Box 458 ~ Peterborough, NH 03458-0458
Phone: 603.924.6079 ~ Fax: 603.924.8668
rgacote(at)AppropriateSolutions.com
www.AppropriateSolutions.com


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