Tacoma Bridge Collapse: The Wobbliest Bridge in the World? (1940) | British Pathé
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses the footage as a visual illustration of resonance and oscillation growing until structural failure.
What it is
Short British Pathe newsreel footage of the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as it twisted and swayed in the wind. The only casualty was a dog left in a stalled car.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2015 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Cites walterbell · 2015-04 · on “Interaction Rituals and the New Electronic Media (2011)”
Thanks for the pointer to "interaction ritual" theory, which could be related with: • Time-oriented Art — poetry, music, film, dance, theatre • John Lilly's research with dolphins, leading to the "Lilly Wave" carrier frequency • Haptic technology, e.g. Apple Watch mediated pulse sensor/actuator • Resonance from wind stimulus, e.g. Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse, [this video]
Cites chaps · 2023-09 · on “What if Planet 9 is a Primordial Black Hole? (2019)”
The latter. Basically [1] but not as exaggerated. Think of things like screws shaking loose over time which leads to structural failure. Plus, no easy means to release that energy like you would when you're attached to a planet. [1] [this video]
Cites cogman10 · 2026-06 · on “Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests”
I think an even better example is what happened to the Tacoma Bridge. You have an oscillating frequency and phase that needs to be precisely tuned in order for everything to work well. If something is out of sync wrong, you can end up with higher peaks, lower valleys, or flatter locations which can ultimately cause catastrophic failure. In the Tacoma example, the input frequency continued to add onto the bridges motion which ultimately caused it to destroy itself. In an electric grid, a misaligned phase can cause excessive spikes (imagine 480V when you expect 240V) or the generators to ultimately burn themselves out because 2 generators are fighting with each other, one trying to raise the v