Skip to main content

Spokane Street Bridge and West Seattle Bridge

By
Below in this photo the Spokane Street Bridge and West Seattle Bridge can be seen rising above Harbor Island and the Duwamish River.






The Spokane Street Bridge is a 1991 concrete swing bridge which replaced the earlier Old Spokane Street Bridge (AKA North Bridge) which was completed in 1924.  The Spokane Street Bridge serves as the lower level of the dual structure West Seattle Bridge, the longest span is 480 feet.  More information on the Old Spokane Street Bridge can be found on Bridgehunter.com

Bridge Hunter on the 1924 Old Spokane Street Bridge

The completed Old Spokane Street Bridge can be seen on the 1924 City map of Seattle.

1924 Map of Seattle

Interestingly the 1924 Old Spokane Street Bridge was proceeded by two other bridges.  The previous bridge to the 1924 span was the Third Spokane Street Drawbridge which was a truss span completed in 1917.  Previous to the 1917 the span there was an earlier truss which crossed to what was presumably Harbor Island when it was under construction in 1907 called the Second Spokane Street Bridge.

Bridgehunter on 1917 Third Spokane Street Bridge

Bridgehunter on the 1907 Second Spokane Street Bridge

Historylink.org actually has an article on both the Third Spokane Street Bridge the Second Spokane Street Bridge.

Historylink.org on the Third Spokane Street Bridge

Historylink on the Second Spokane Street Bridge

The West Seattle Bridge was under construction from 1981 to 1984 and was meant to relieve traffic congestion on the 1924 Spokane Street Bridge.  The West Seattle Bridge is Sectional Cantilever Bridge that is 2,607 feet long and has a maximum clearance of 140 feet.  The West Seattle Bridge essentially part of a freeway grade west from I-5 which crosses a junction with WA 99 before leveling off to a street grade near SW Genesee Street.

When I was driving through the area I met Spokane Street at Harbor Avenue and continued east to WA 99 on the Spokane Street Bridge.  The Spokane Street Bridge provided views of the substructure of the West Seattle Bridge.





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
3 comments
Read more

Hawaii Route 50

By
Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more