San Francisco residents have been sharing recordings of their bridge on social media last week and over the weekend as high winds swept through the Bay Area. One Twitter user described the sound as a “three-tone dissonant soundtrack,” and others reported hearing it from as far away as 3 miles (4.8 kilometers).
SF311, which provides non-emergency services and information for San Francisco residents, tweeted that slats installed along the bridge’s bike path were responsible for the noise, citing the Golden Gate Bridge sergeant, an officer with the California Highway Patrol.on social media last week and over the weekend as high winds swept through the Bay Area. One Twitter user described the sound as a “three-tone dissonant soundtrack,” and others reported hearing it from as far away as 3 miles (4.8 kilometers).
he local National Weather Service office tweeted that west-northwest winds of 30 to 35 mph (48 to 56 km/h) had been reported in the area, with gusts up to 43 mph (67 km/h). Even higher winds were reported in nearby counties.
KQED reported that the slats were added as part of a “necessary” long-term effort to make the 83-year-old bridge more aerodynamic and insure its long-term structural integrity. Wind tunnel models of the retrofit had already shown the slats might hum under certain conditions.
My colleagues at Live Science report tht The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia offers a helpful online guide to sounds like this. In general, wind instruments work by turning the energy of moving air into a standing wave — a pattern of vibration moving back and forth in the instrument. The instrument’s cavity determines the frequency — and thus the sound — of that standing wave. And the instrument itself amplifies the wave into a sound loud enough to hear.
The details of this process vary widely from ancient flutes to oboes to a glass bottle someone might blow over. Materials, tuning and airflow determine what sounds get produced.
