McGraw St. Bridge – Seattle WA

Description

Grants from the Public Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration helped fund the construction of a new bridge to carry McGraw Street across the Wolf Creek ravine in Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill district. The new bridge opened in 1936. It replaced a wood trestle structure that dated back to the early years of the century and had fallen into severe disrepair. In 1934, engineers with the Seattle Parks Department, which had responsibility for maintaining the old bridge, declared it to be unsafe and in need of immediate replacement due to a large number of rotten timbers and escalating maintenance costs. Plans for a replacement span moved forward in 1935, when the Public Works Administration approved a grant for a new $90,000 concrete arch bridge and the city of Seattle appropriated the required local matching funds. Meanwhile, the Works Progress Administration authorized $15,600 in funding to cover the cost of labor for clearing the hillsides beneath the existing bridge and preparing the site for further work. Construction of the new bridge began the following spring and progressed rapidly during the summer months. The completed bridge, which opened to traffic on September 15, 1936, featured an all-concrete, two-lane roadway with a pedestrian sidewalk and four electric light posts on each side of the roadway. The bridge deck was supported by a pair of open spandrel concrete arches that spanned the full width of the ravine.