April 18th, 2008 @ 1:09 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure
Now that I’ve already complained about the
520 Bridge, I suppose it’s the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge’s turn (you may just call it the I-90 Bridge). Yesterday it took me an hour and a half to cross it on the way home from work. The trip is 16 miles — giving me an average rate of about 10.5 mph. Nice! Since I’m not bitter, let’s check out these vintage (undated) photos I dug up. The bridge was built in 1940, with the newer parallel span opening in 1989. Give these a click or three.
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P-1190 Lake Washington Bridge — Seattle, Wn.
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Lake Washington Floating Bridge — Seattle, Wn.
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459 Lake Washington Pontoon Bridge — Seattle, Wash. The Only Concrete Pontoon Bridge in the World.
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April 18th, 2008 @ 8:53 am
You sparked my interest as I remember this bridge growing up in the 60’s. I wikipedia’d it and was reminded why.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bridge
I remembered the bulge (not shown in your picture; don’t know why) with two sharp corners to it that required slowing to about 40 mph, and if you didn’t slow down or if you were in poor weather, you could (and too many did) go right over the railing into the lake. It was nasty. But I had forgotten about the reversible lane that was also dangerous. Finally, didn’t know that Lacey V. Murrow was Edward R. Murrow’s older brother.
April 18th, 2008 @ 9:22 am
That last image is a beauty.
I also like how they noted that it was The Only Concrete Pontoon Bridge in the World as if there are many other bridges that people drove over and said to themselves, “You know what?! This just might be a concrete pontoon bridge! Is it?! I mean, I THINK it’s concrete. But are they pontoons?! If it IS a concrete pontoon bridge, are there others?! Wowee! Let’s check with the reference librarian when we get home!”
April 18th, 2008 @ 2:48 pm
An hour and a half?
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
-Henry David Thoreau
April 18th, 2008 @ 3:38 pm
I don’t know if there was some sort of accident, if it was just road work, or what. My commute over the bridge usually isn’t bad at all (certainly not as bad as 520 was).
Cliffe
April 18th, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
Guess who started that Wikipedia article, four years ago
April 18th, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
*applause*
Want to add one of these pics to the wikipedia entry, Ben? We also need a new picture of you, unless you are indeed eyeless:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Seattle-meetup-4_11.jpg
Cliffe
April 18th, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
I think pontoons are an endangered species.
April 20th, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
I would, but these photos are still under copyright
April 20th, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
PS: Yeah, I got eyes… heh heh
May 5th, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
There are about a dozen concrete bridges around the globe built over fresh water. Far fewer over salt water (such as the Hood Canal Bridge). My dad recalls a lot of arguement as to if the concrete pontoons would stay afloat under heavy load. To prove the naysayer wrong, after they built the first one, they filled up dump trucks, and parked them bumper to bumper until they filled every inch of the pontoon. After they measured the amount the height of the pontoon out of water and in was even higher than projected by the engineers, they built the rest…
In 1930, the city of Seattle and King County granted a franchise to the Seattle Toll Bridge Co. to build the Seward Park span, but financiers failed to step forward with bridge funds, and the plan fell through.
King County took over the project in 1935 with plans to build a steel truss cantilever from Seward Park for an estimated $3.5 million. Still, financing was a problem.
The state created the Washington Toll Bridge Authority to get federal grant money. The toll bridge authority was charged with locating, designing, financing and building both the Lake Washington and the Tacoma Narrows bridges.
In June of 1937 Lacey V. Murrow, a member of the toll authority and director of the state Highway Department, listened to Hadley’s plan for a bridge made of concrete pontoons. The idea stuck.
Pontoons seemed ideal. Concrete would be less expensive, and a seven-foot immersion in the water would be enough to stabilize the bridge during rough water.
Murrow was satisfied that enough motorists would use the bridge, at 25 cents per car, to repay the revenue bonds to finance more than half of the $8 million it would cost to build it. A $3.7 million federal grant would pay for the rest.
Work began on the Lake Washington Floating Bridge on Dec. 31, 1938. For the next 18 months, more than 3,000 men were employed on the bridge construction.
The four-lane concrete highway consisted of 25 floating pontoons bolted together end-to-end and attached to fixed approach spans.
The bridge was anchored with steel cables to resist wind and waves, and hydraulic jacks to let out or take up the slack.
It was the first floating draw span in the world, with a 200-foot section designed to allow vessels to pass through. Two 75-horsepower motors were used to open the span in 90 seconds. The bridge opened on July 2, 1940 as a crowd of 2,000 watched the christening of the 6,620-foot floating span.
Fifty years after it was built, water from a heavy rainstorm filled the pontoons and the floating bridge sank into Lake Washington on Nov. 25, 1990. Right away, efforts began to replace it with $88 million in emergency highway funds.
According to WSDOT:
Washington State is the floating bridge capitol of the world with the four longest and heaviest floating bridges. They are the SR 520 Evergreen Point Bridge, the I-90 Lacey V. Murrow Bridge, the I-90 Homer M. Hadley Bridge, and the SR 104 Hood Canal Bridge.
In 1957, a concrete floating bridge was built across Lake Okanagan at Kelowna in south central British Columbia, Canada. Its floating length is 2,100 feet (640 meters) and its design is very similar to the Lacey V. Murrow Bridge.
The Demerara Harbor Bridge in Georgetown, Guyana is another floating bridge. It is made of steel pontoon units and extends 6,074 feet (1851 meters).
Norway has two large floating bridges – the Bergsoeysund Floating Bridge in Kristiansund, More og Romsdal and the Nordhordland Floating Bridge.
Another long-time floating bridge site is the Golden Horn at Istanbul, Turkey.