High winds on Friday produced tones that are the side effect of a handrail retrofit designed to make the span more aerodynamic on gusty days. Wilson Walker reports. (6-6-20)
Oh Man I LITERALLY just UPLOADED a Golden Gate Bridge video of me walking on it. You should definitely check it out because you can feel the HISTORY. If you don't like the video I'll give you $5 just for your time. You will not REGRET IT!
That noise is gonna make people in the Bay Area even nuttier than they already are. Seriously, folks, this is called noise pollution and can really wear on people. Shame on the engineers who "anticipated this" and did nothing to abate it.
Alex Ved it's not, it's a magnetic field or resonance. Earths magnetic field is weakening allowing cosmic rays to effect the metal. Think about this all that construction didn't just get put up overnight and the wind didn't just start blowing. Expect a very big earthquake nearby get ready be prepared
That guy is way too proud of the noise. It's a bridge, not an art piece. "Cool" and "Different" isn't the point. Sound has been used as a method of torture for POWs. It causes stress and sleep deprivation which in itself is a form of torture. Audiologists have long discovered that prolong exposure to low pitch hums can cause hearing loss. You can't control the wind so you can't control the duration of the hum from bridge. You can't control the time is occurs like during sleep hours, and you can't control the wind speed so there's no guarantee it will be quieter at night. In fact wind tends to stronger at night.
I'm pretty sure they didnt expected this. So they're using an excuse like it was expected after the fact they realized the made a mistake. Who makes a bridge that creates noise pollution?
Oh Man I LITERALLY just UPLOADED a Golden Gate Bridge video of me walking on it. You should definitely check it out because you can feel the HISTORY. If you don't like the video I'll give you $5 just for your time. You will not REGRET IT!
Not an option. The rails were replaced in order to lower wind drag to compensate for the heightened wind drag of the new anti-suicide nets. They can't go back unless they remove the nets and let the suicides resume. Imagine the much bigger lawsuits if they did *that*. They'll probably come up with some kind of vibration-dampening bolt liner or something that'll reduce the volume.
If anyone has watched the documentary “The Bridge” you can understand how eerie this sound and view can be. Rest In Peace to all of the people that have lost their lives here.
"Frustration has been mounting for nearly a year. Sleep has been disrupted. The constant background hum has become an unwanted way of life in neighborhoods as far away as Daly City"
It may be handrails making the the sound, but ignoring it should not be an option. If the rails are vibrating, they are damaging the main structure, slowly. If you want to see what happens to a bridge that vibrates and more in the wind, should look up galloping gertie
Not necessarily true on damage. It depends on the frequency VS how the bridge takes the vibration. Given that cars and trucks cross it... I'd say it's not likely. As for galloping gertie... The physics are totally different but related to why they changed the rails. Gertie had solid guardrails which the wind could grab wholesale and directly twist the structure of the bridge. The bridge's response to that wind was such that it was the resonant frequency of the entire structure. The humming rails on this bridge, if even possible, would cause damage in a different mode. The humming would just loosen something or cause some sort of minute, gradually propagating fracture damage over time... But again that's assuming it's even possible which I highly doubt. Not much energy's going into the bridge that way, I bet. Park a truck with a concert stack or two on the bridge and I bet you could get the same volume out of it.
Many catastrophic bridge failures over the years were caused by what looked to be non essential issues. The Florida walkway which collapsed onto several vehicle's, killing the drivers, I-35W Mississippi bridge which many ignored until it was too late. Bringing a truck blaring the speakers for a day at same frequency is not the same as a entire rail that expands the length of the bridge. The Golden Gate bridge was never designed to deal with the railings that were recently added. The vibration may seem to be absorbed, but somewhere parts unseen will most likely become loose, form cracks. Hyatt Regency walkway collapse which injured and killed many was caused by several factors, vibration, weight, illegal changes to design which the owners tried covering up, but was discovered when one very good investigator who was not really part of the investigation found where the damaged walkway parts where being kept hidden. If something does happen to the Golden Gate Bridge due to the new handrail vibrations being given off daily, it's most likely going to happen many years from now, and if so, let's just hope when it is discovered, it's not after a catastrophic event and just an expensive repair with a lesson learned.
Wonder what all our bridges , highways,, trains will look like in the future. They are old at the end of their life span and don't last forever. Are there even plans to build new ones Perhaps? We are so far behind. Get crews out there. Teach people a trade and pay them well. my great Uncle built the huge transmission towers on the east coast, PA, in the 1960s and 70s. Hard work. Perhaps new technology and materials can be used to build them faster, better and cheaper. Those " shovel ready" jobs from the 2008 recession sure didn't get going too fast. I drove cross country 4 times from 2015, 2018 and saw whole huge new freeway projects in fly over states where there were 2 trucks and 5 guys. Get a crew of 125 people on it and it can be done. You can hardly go south from NYC through DC to north carolina on i95. The Jersey turnpike is narrow in places and crowded and people drive 90 mph up your butt. Only 2 lanes south out of DC in each direction and it is backed up all day every day. Needs to be expanded north and south.. I hope there will be repairs to all the failing bridges, highways and local roads. We need high speed train infrastructure too. None of the tracks in the N.E. can handle fast trains. Current tracks are narrow and near population, homes, etc. The tunnels old and small. Wish we could filter the trash and chemicals from storm water run off before it gets to rivers and oceans. So much we can do, but seems nothing gets done or takes 30 years!
When they hired a newly engineer that got his credentials online. I already got tired of hearing the humming noise for 3 minutes, sucks for the people who have to bear with this for years to come.
It's not a bug; it's a feature. ( ... a feature, I might add, that is tapping into the bridge's resonant frequency. It's oscillating, not singing, and it will soon prove fatal to the structure's integrity if not corrected. The oscillation is forcing the entire bridge to compensate by vibrating cables, like strings of a guitar. The sound you hear is probably the road deck and trusses acting as a sound box, amplifying the sound. This error will ultimately cost millions to repair before it causes irreparable damage. See Tacoma Narrows Bridge or HuMen Bridge for further reference.)
Not necesserally, it could be really just the wind being shattered arround the newer railings, like any blowing instrument, the air is vibrating not the instrument itself
That's gotta be an interesting gig! Are they still painting it constantly? We found giant chips of many paint layers on the Marin side. There was no "humming" sound before was there? Weird!
I totaly forgot about this comment. I dont have feelings towards it. It's from the new handrail we put in. I'm sure there will be a fix. Its loud, and it hurts the ears up close. We put new handrail in to help with the aerodynamics from adding a suicide barrier... as far as painting it constantly, that's a b.s. rumor. It is NOT painted end to end, constantly. No, there was no humming sounds before..
Makes you think of the "Galloping Gertie Bridge" in Tacoma. After they fixed the guard rails it didn't sway anymore. It swayed radically and collapsed under the pressure of the wind. But like I said they figured out it needed the guard rails to be a certain way.
To add more detail to this comment, the bridge used solid girders on either side, giving it that sleek look. These girders caused the bridge to experience resonance from vortex shedding. This is seen in the vertical undulations. This resonance wasn't why it failed though. On the day of its collapsed, a different oscillation started 45 minutes before collapsing. Instead of moving vertically, it moved in a twisting motion. This again may possibly have been caused by the solid girders. The phenomenon that caused this was possibly aeroelastic flutter, which is different from resonance from vortex shedding. I'm not gonna explain how these phenomenon work since this would make this comment too long, but in short the flutter caused too much stress in the suspension cables and the bridge collapsed. Thankfully the only casualty was a dog trapped in a car stuck on the bridge. The bridge was the 3rd longest at the time, and took awhile to build, it collapsed only a few months after completion.
Thankfully the golden gate bridge doesn't have solid girders so it's probably unlikely for the bridge to suffer the same fate as the old tacoma narrows bridge(galloping girdie) Take this with a pinch of salt though, I am not a professional.
This is the sort of thing that would be turned into a legend in a post apocalyptic world, a la horizon zero dawn. Like, "the crimson Bridge sings with the souls of the old world, warning you to stay away from the invisible poison that fills the air beyond its span" (the implication being that LA gets nuked)
@Mr Jones then you know.san Jose in the 2000s I fogetth year but our wind was so bad I couldn't really walk..lol..it was to strong to walk in it was no joke
The wind speed will drive the frequency that the air coming through the slats vibrates at. If that frequency matches the "resonant" frequency (think of the washing machine jumping around at a certain speed) of the barriers, then they will vibrate much more aggressively and loudly. This presents another problem though. The model they used to test this did not include the uprights or support cables. There is a phenomenon called Acoustically Induced Vibration (AIV) which can lead to fatigue failures, cables wearing through metal and bolts coming loose, caused by high volume sound making structures vibrate, especially if at that resonant frequency. I really hope they carried out separate studies to ensure that AIV will not affect the bridge supports, as they only seem to have tested what happens to the main road deck of the bridge from the overall force of the wind. They may be able to dampen the noise and vibration by adding dampers to each railing, if the railings are vibrating at their resonant frequency.
@Kristin Marie Yes but now you have created something which is going to wear on the people around the bridge area. There had to be other ways to do this why wasnt one of those chosen.
michelle belle yea that's why I call bs on the news story, it's a magnetic field or resonance. Earths magnetic field is weakening allowing cosmic rays to effect the metal. Think about this all that construction didn't just get put up overnight and the wind didn't just start blowing. Expect a very big earthquake nearby.
A feature? , maybe look into how hypnotic that will become once everyone is used to hearing it. It also sounds eerily like a Shofar being blown..prophetic end times horn maybe?
We ought have someone reverse engineer the rails so that they will sing to the tune of I Left My Heart In San Francisco or better yet The Sound Of Silence.
I did a construction job in Venice beach, the neighbor had a giant vertical tube in back of the house, facing the ocean, that made a similar sound. Day and night.
Apparently, most people don't understand that. Including the genius bragging about this 'special feature'. Your comment is the 1st I saw that mentions it. I thought resonance & frequency was part of an architect's training?... 🤔
We used to live 5 minutes walk from this when my husband was active duty military and this would have driven me insane. As he had been a helicopter pilot, he might not have heard it, and handed us some earplugs!
Its really the UFOs 2020 is the weirdest year ever. 1. Government aknowledges UFOs 2. Pandemic 3. Historically massive protest movement 4. Golden Gate bridge starts singing ...and its only June
The rental car parking garage across terminal B at San Jose Mineta airport produces a loud tone when the winds are strong especially during night time.
The sound came from hollow metal rail with small hole that allowed wind to go trough and caused vibration on high wind and low wind. High wind causes extreme speed creates strong vibration creates high pitch. Low wind creates slow low pictch.
They have a sinking/leaning sky scraper. The bay bridge literally crumbles. And now they are trying to write this creepy sound off as a feature? They cant do anything right......
Who is "they," exactly? The fact that you're lumping all those structures together and blaming a single entity indicates you don't have a clue what you're banging on about. Or is the "they" just humanity in general? 'Cause it would be reassuring to know you aren't one of us.
Great, now you've done it... turned it into a space beacon for Space aliens to find us. But once they land in San Fan and notice all the human poop on the sidewalks they will probably say Hell No Im not staying here.
imagining a horror movie scenario. a small family escaping from an unknown horror forced to cross the bridge in sf's foggiest weather. the air is dead still. halfway across the wind picks up, the family hears the bridge wail as the fog becomes to lift revealing a silhouetted figure waiting for them on the other side
The bridge is 83 years old! It’s obviously hasn’t been very resilient to wind for the last 83 years, let’s add a hand rail that allows more wind to pass through and makes a noise heard audible for miles then lets call it a feature! It was really necessary. This is what happens when our school system has gone to hell and we give everyone an A for effort and everyone makes the team.
Let’s face it, this is an engineering screw up. It was never mentioned in any announcements or descriptions of work to be done. The guy saying the sound was anticipated is just plain lying. An insult to everyone’s intelligence. For those of us who live near the bridge this is more than a distraction. This is a harmful noise that will drive some people crazy. The bridge people need to stop trying to sell this as a “feature” and get to work on a fix that will make it go away. If they choose not to correct the problem, I’m sure a strong legal approach will point out the liability of the unwanted noise and and effect it has on all who have to live with it.
If it is expected ‘feature’, shouldn’t it be published as part of the design, how come media not aware or do some research, probably corruption is now the norm in SF, no one really hold anyone accountable. Tax the working class to death, legalized corruption next.
This is so old the news did a feature on this exact subject two weeks ago from June 2nd 2021 stating they know exactly what the noise is and they are already fixing it. 😎
If the aerodynamics of the bridge are affected by this change. So are the load and stress points. Kinda suspect. Destructive frequency if it's making that noise could be potentially bad.
Why people think this is annoying? Really? why can't you guys appreciate that? It is not like a dog bark or a car honk that people in the city loves to hear EVERY SINGLE DAY
@Kristin Marie I'm not an engineer but I do a lot of construction work one item vibrating connected to another item the vibrations travel through the other item. I'm not saying it's going to hit a resonant frequency of the bridge.. but what happens to something that's bolted to something else and you constantly wiggle those bolts will come loose and can cause wear on the bolt. common Sense 101
