Waves and Tides Can Be Insidious Disasters, Too: Mark Gongloff

A couple of days before Christmas last year, battered by heavy waves, the end of the half-mile-long Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf unexpectedly tumbled into Monterey Bay.

A tourist magnet claiming to be the longest fully wooden structure of its kind in the Western hemisphere, the wharf was open for business when the collapse happened, forcing visitors and workers to evacuate. Two engineers and a project manager at the wharf’s terminus fell in the water but escaped serious injury. Some heavy construction equipment and a large public restroom weren’t so lucky.

A public restroom from the Santa Cruz Wharf, washed up on a nearby beach.

Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images/Hearst Newspapers/Hearst Newspapers

The collapse, triggered by waves that may have been ...