Sitting on the Pacific coast in northwest Washington State, Tacoma is no stranger to high winds and stormy waters. But in November 1940, the strongest gusts in years twisted the massive Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Steel beams gyrated, the road warped, and, after a final creak, the whole structure collapsed. More eerie than the spontaneous failure was the myth that bubbled up around the disaster—that it was caused not by 40 mph winds but by the meaty arms of a 600-pound, man-eating octopus that still lurks beneath the bridge to this…
