In the shadows of a graveyard
The fall of “Galloping Gertie,” the original Tacoma Narrows bridge, and the rise of new life in its remnants
Story by KELSIE NOBLE
Hunks of metal sit twisted like the arms of an octopus, out of place in the foyer of Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor. These metal scraps are remnants of the collapse of “Galloping Gertie,” the original 1940 bridge that reached across the Tacoma Narrows strait.
The sister pieces to this metal, ripped away from the bridge by the sheer force of nature, have all found different resting spots. Some went to scrap while others settled at the bottom of the strait where they have laid for nearly 80 years.
“Galloping Gertie” — once deemed an engineering triumph — stood for only four months. A wind storm hit the Narrows on Nov. 7, 1940 with gusts reaching 40 mph. It caused a structural failure, sending one car and large pieces of the bridge spiraling into the depths below.
When entering through the Harbor History Museum’s front doors, it’s easy to walk past the piece of “Galloping Gertie” — now a twisted heap — without a second glance.
Nora Thompson, membership coordinator at the museum, looked at the metal as she recounted her knowledge of the 1940 accident. Luckily, no human lives were lost, she said.
“One man came close,” Thompson said.
Leonard Coatsworth, an editor at the Tacoma News Tribune, escaped his vehicle but returned to try and get his daughter’s dog out of the car, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation website. The dog, a three-legged cocker spaniel named Tubby, was the only life lost in the accident.
“The dog was so frightened that he wouldn’t come and that man just barely made it across before the bridge went down,” Thompson said.
The part of the roadway that collapsed into the waters below has become an artificial reef for the marine life of the Puget Sound. It’s now a destination spot for recreational divers, marine biologists and those that believe in a local legend that says the largest octopus in the world lurks around those parts.
“Some of the stuff that’s still under there is hard to get to because it’s deep, and of course it’s super, super windy,” Thompson said. “But of course, divers do like it just to go down and take a look at everything.”
Brian Bingham, interim director of the marine science program at Western, said the Narrows is teeming with marine life.
“It gets very strong current exchange underneath there so you see a real strong movement of water,” Bingham said. “Lots of different kinds of animals really like that kind of environment.”
The strong current creates a water exchange that brings in food to the marine life that populates that area, Bingham said. “That’s a place that’s well-known for lots of octopus and wolf eels which are some of the more impressive marine fish around here,” Bingham said. “You’ll have big fields of sea anemones, very large barnacles, sea stars and sea slugs, just a really large diversity of marine invertebrates are there.”
Diver Greg McGowan has jumped into the chilly waters of the Narrows himself. McGowan is a Puget Sound native and has been diving for upwards of 30 years.
“I have always been fascinated with diving — with things under water,” McGowan said.
His salt and pepper hair and Boeing-approved office attire is juxtaposed with a motorcycle helmet held under one arm and a padded jacket covering his upper half. With three decades of experience in underwater excursions, Greg is still able to recount his trip under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge back in the early ’80s vividly.
“Well, a friend of mine was a commercial diver,” McGowan chuckled. “He had a boat and it was moored out of Tacoma. We would use it to go through different types of dives around the Puget Sound and, being a bit of a thrill-seeker, it’s always about, ‘Well, okay, what haven’t we done?’”
The Puget Sound is a giant marine life exploration center for anyone that loves the water. There is plenty to discover for those interested in the deep blue, from commercial divers to underwater photographers.
“The Tacoma Narrows dive is an interesting dive in that one — you have that dilapidated bridge structure on the bottom,” McGowan said. “Also, it’s a very, very deep dive and kind of a technical dive, the currents there are just outrageously fast.”
McGowan and his diving partner Rick Meyers would dive on the west side of the Narrows, towards Gig Harbor. McGowan said they would swim down about 110 feet, which made it more of a technical dive than a recreational one as recreational diving is between 30 and 60 feet.
When divers reach waters 100 feet deep, they can start to get nitrogen narcosis, a buildup of nitrogen in the blood. It makes it difficult to think straight, forcing them to concentrate, McGowan said.
“We set everything up, decided to make things interesting and go spearfishing as well, got in the water at the right time and then we descended, following the anchor all the way to the bottom,” McGowan recalled of their Tacoma Narrows dive.
Meyers and McGowan got separated during their dive and that’s when he ran across the bridge decking.
“There is a lot of just flat, cracked-up pieces of concrete stacked on each other,” McGowan remembered. “You can see some twisted steel and there’s a lot of pockets underneath where the things have stacked up and that’s where we were looking for fish.”
Meyers, McGowan’s old diving partner, brought some friends down to the Narrows dive. One of them stumbled upon an octopus hiding in one of the crevices created by the wreckage and decided he wanted to reach in and grab it.
“After the fact he realized this was a mistake because now he had eight arms swinging around grabbing his face mask, grabbing all over his body and you know — two arms against eight legs, he couldn’t get control of him,” McGown said, his arms flailing as though he was the one in the incident.
When speaking about the possibility of the world’s largest octopus hiding under the bridge, Bingham pointed out how long the legend has been around — decades.
“Well, then we know it’s false,” Bingham laughed. “Giant Pacific octopuses live a max of five years, probably closer to three. They grow very fast but there’s not going to be one down there that stays for 20 years or 10 years even.”
While large octopuses are seen fairly routinely under the bridge, the “world’s largest” is probably not there, Bingham said. Although the legend might be dispelled, large octopuses are seen fairly routinely under the bridge.
While the glamorized hunks of metal in the foyer of the Harbor History Museum serve little purpose other than to inform visitors about the fateful incident, the pieces that never made it out of the water are just the opposite. Since they have been under water for nearly 80 years now, they have grown to hold so much life, wonder and mystery that one could only imagine unless they dive there themselves.
