Those who have traveled across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge for years had a close-up view of the construction of the new Narrows Bridge for Highway 16’s eastbound traffic. But not many people were around when work began to build a new span after the original bridge (nicknamed “Galloping Gertie”) collapsed during a wind storm on November 7, 1940, just four months after opening.

This photo shows a worker walking atop one of the bridge cables on November 16, 1940, just a week after the original bridge fell.

Photo courtesy of Washington State Archives.