- City:
- Mercer Island, Seattle, WA
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
“Constructed in just 18 months, the first bridge across Lake Washington opened on July 2, 1940. Funded partly by the Public Works Administration, the pontoon bridge was an engineering marvel, the longest floating span in the world at that time. The toll bridge made possible the expansion of suburban communities on the eastside. Fifty years after it opened, on November 25, 1990, the bridge failed. Several pontoon sunk and the roadway ripped apart in the face of severe winds and waves. The destroyed span was soon replaced.”
Source notes
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Scott Larsen
Hello –
I am a Roosevelt historian and came across your wonderful website.
Writing a book about Seattle (1939-1941) and came across your websites list of New Deal projects in my home state of Washington.
I did catch an error concerning the ‘Evergreen Point Floating Bridge.’ It was not this bridge but the Lake Washington Floating Bridge that was built with New Deal dollars. It was later named the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge after the Washington State Director of Highways. Lacey was the older brother of noted CBS newsman also from Washington state, Edward R. Murrow.
The Evergreen Point bridge, renamed the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge, was built in the early 1960’s and opened in 1963.