Before it was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, it was known as Galloping Gertie. A suspension bridge that would twist and rise before it eventually collapsed in 1940, only five months after it opened.
"It twisted and buckled so much that people were thrown, you know the cars were moving around. People jumped out of their cars to escape, they crawled off the bridge,” said Juliana Verboort with the Washington State History Museum. “A 600-foot span of bridge collapsed and fell into the sound.”
The history museum houses a piece of the concrete form the original bridge. While the rest of the bridge is under water, legend has it that the world's largest octopus lives underneath.
"Whether it’s true or not it's fun history, and it's great to have this kind of legends that we can all latch onto," said Verboort.
The legend also captured the heart of artist Sean Orland California who put together a massive steel sculpture called the “Ghost of Gertie.”
"The artwork is commissioned by Sound Transit, but the city of Tacoma owns the land. So we're collaborating together to make sure it’s an additionally nice gateway into downtown," said Amy McBride, the Arts Administrator for the City of Tacoma.
"The artists were inspired by the idea of Tacoma's fascination with the great Pacific octopus but also the idea that the octopus would be living under that bridge or the remnants of that bridge, " said McBride.
"It's also really reminiscent of the industrial nature and character of Tacoma, the arch forms that can be found in the dome in the Washington State History Museum and it really fits well in this valley that's really a gateway into downtown," said McBride.