Tacoma

It is fed by multiple fresh water creeks and most notably the Puyallup River which is the largest freshwater river in the area. Commencement Bay has a long history of industrial development, which has leant Tacoma its moniker the “City of Destiny” as well as its notoriety as the home of the “Aroma of Tacoma.” This development has also shaped Tacoma’s current shoreline and overall appearance. Originally, the shoreline was primarily an expanse of tideflats and estuaries, with large shellfish and seabird populations and important salmon habitat. The tideflats for thousands of years have supported tribes such as the Puyallup, by providing hunting, fishing and agriculture and more recently the import and export of the region’s abundant natural resources. Not to mention the deep waters of the bay enticed Western settlement and soon development by settlers from the Eastern United States quickly overtook the local landscape. The tideflats were filled in, and upon them was built the railroad, roads, homes, lumber mills, and the Port of Tacoma, drastically changing the landscape, the ecosystem, and the local economy. With prevalent industrial activity and hospitable conditions for ocean-going vessels, Tacoma rapidly became a significant…

On November 7th, 1940, the Tacoma Bridge collapsed into the Tacoma Narrows straight in Washington State. The bridge connected the town of Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula, and was one of the first major suspension bridges in the western United States. Unlike other suspension bridges constructed around this time, the Tacoma Bridge failed to withstand wind speeds over 40 miles per hour, due to unequal stress on parts of the bridge. The construction of a suspension bridge must include geometric…

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin suspension bridges that span the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound in Pierce County, Washington. The bridges connect the city of Tacoma with the Kitsap Peninsula and carry State Route 16 over the strait. Historically, the name "Tacoma Narrows Bridge" has applied to the original bridge nicknamed "Galloping Gertie", which opened in July 1940 but collapsed because of aeroelastic flutter four months later, as well as the replacement of the original…

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was finished building and was open to the public on June 1st, 1940 in Tacoma, Washington. The bridge was very useful because it had cut the travel time from about 2 and ½ hour drive from Tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula to about 10 to 15 minutes. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was the third longest bridge at the time with the length of 1.4 miles. Not even a year after the opening of the bridge on November 7th, 1940, it had collapsed taking no human lives. The exact cause of…

Seattle – Tacoma International Airport and Airspace Case Study Seattle – Tacoma International Airport: Strong Future Projections on a Stable Basis Seattle – Tacoma International Airport, better known as Sea-Tac (KSEA), is the main Air Gate and Hub Airport of Seattle Port Authority. Consisted by a great real-estate footprint, it is set to be one of the most massive aerospace facilities and service providing structures of the Pacific North West Region of the United States. Sea-Tac Airport, named…

something humorous back, but they knew in reality, I wasn’t actually joking. By the time I turned sixteen, I had yet to obtain my driver’s license. I was not at all motivated in acquiring it, because I didn’t have my own vehicle to drive. My parents eventually expressed their plan to buy me a truck, but we would have to wait until the right circumstance. As many months went by, I restlessly waited for news of my vehicle. I began to wonder if the truck that was meant for me actually existed. In…

But it shocked the engineering community across America. This can coincide with the Ashtabula train disaster even though the Ashtabula disaster was 100 times more deadly than the Tacoma narrows bridge collapse. They both fell due to economic bargaining and distasteful engineering work. The support beams from the Ashtabula horror were speculated to have air pockets from cheap unrefined steel. Which eventually fell when the bridge could no longer support it self along with the harsh winter…

barbaric circumstances. In effect, engineers are able to save a lot of lives just by speculating and testing the effects of such scenarios. Referring back to the Chernobyl disaster, it can be examined that a minor design flaw caused a terrific disaster just through a simple test. According to the World Nuclear Association, “A peculiarity of the design of the control rods caused a dramatic power surge as they were inserted into the reactor.” (World Nuclear Association, 2016). As horrifying as the…

Imagine having just cleaned up an area and someone was planning to go and pollute it again. The Port of Tacoma is planning on making a methanol plant for a company based in China. They should not build a methanol plant because, it will pollute our air with different chemicals, and it will cost a lot of money. These are only a few reasons why they should not build a methanol plant at the Port of Tacoma. The first reason why they should not build the methanol plant is that it will pollute our…

Abstract: The 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, was 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. It opened to traffic on July 1, 1940, and dramatically collapsed into the Northwestern coast of Washington on November 7 of the same year. At the time of its construction, the bridge was the third-longest suspension bridge in the world in terms of main span…