Video: 'Tacoma Bridge Collapse (1940)'

(Thursday, November 7, 1940, 11:10 a.m. PST) — The newly built first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, a suspension bridge in the U.S. state of Washington that spanned the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula, collapsed with a roar today and plunged into waters 195 feet below.

Video: 'Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse'

Nicknamed Galloping Gertie by construction workers, the bridge’s main span collapsed in 40-mile-per-hour winds as the deck oscillated in an alternating twisting motion that gradually increased in amplitude until the deck tore apart.

Video: '1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse (from TWC's Weather Caught On Camera)'

Leonard Coatsworth, a Tacoma News Tribune newspaper editor, was the last person to drive on the bridge. Tubby, Coatsworth’s cocker spaniel, was the only fatality of the disaster as he was lost along with Coatsworth’s car.