the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

IGNORE THE PAST AT YOUR PERIL 53
sons why the federal officials balked aren’t clear, but dark rumors have
swirled for decades. Suspecting the fix was in, Eldridge later suggested in
his unpublished autobiography that Moisseiff had met with PWA offi cials
before their decision and convinced them that he could design a bridge
that could be built for far less money than Eldridge’s design. That suggestion
seems plausible because the PWA’s decision to fund the project came
with two telling caveats. It required the state to hire outside design con sultants,
and it offered only $6.4 million to get it built—the same amount
Eldridge claims Moisseiff estimated his bridge design would cost. Federal
officials later denied trying to steer the job into the hands of any partic u lar
designer, but Moisseiff eventually got the gig as design con sultant for the
superstructure, and the New York firm of Moran & Proctor was hired to
design the substructure. And Eldridge, who’d spent years on his own design
and scavenging money for what he considered his pet project, was
eventually put in charge of building Moisseiff’s design.
That design was so stunning that Moisseiff, boldly overcoming humility,
described the completed Tacoma Narrows Bridge as “the most
beautiful in the world.” It was a classic modernist span with streamlined
features, a showpiece of period design. He’d given it two soaring 425-foot
towers and accentuated their height by incorporating supporting cables
and other vertical lines that swept the eye skyward. The roadway that
stretched across the mile-plus length of the bridge was a slender two-lane
ribbon of asphalt only 39 feet wide. The whole thing was secured at both
ends by massive art deco anchorages of concrete and steel. “It was not
merely a road for cars and trucks,” Hobbs wrote, “but an artistic and engineering
statement. It was the culmination of [Moisseiff’s] outstanding
career.”
Had Moisseiff paid a bit more attention to the history of suspension
bridges, though, he would have realized that he’d overlooked something
rather critical. Bridge builders of the 19th century had followed the same
path as Moisseiff, striving to build suspension bridges that were longer,