Watch the amazing "Gallopin' Gertie" November 7, 1940 film clip. 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge Slender, elegant and graceful, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge stretched like a steel ribbon across Puget Sound in 1940. The third longest suspension span in the world opened on July 1st. Only four months later, the great span's short life ended in disaster. "Galloping Gertie," collapsed in a windstorm on November 7,1940. The bridge became famous as "the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering histo