The new span of the 520 floating bridge opened for a weekend of festivities on Saturday. I walked the length of the span and back with, according to the WSDOT twitter feed, some of the 25-30,000 Seattleites who came out to celebrate another cool transportation improvement!
Despite growing up in The City of Bridges the notion of a floating bridge was new to me when I moved to Seattle. All of the ~446 bridges in Pittsburgh are well above the rivers. WSDOT had a rather neat exhibit that demonstrated and explained the geology, construction methods and bridge design. WSDOT and HistoryLink.org developed site which is an a excellent starting point for anyone interested in the history of the region, peoples and bridges.
Fun day despite the kerfuffle getting the revelers off the bridge. WSDOT and King County Metro responded quickly; many thanks to the people who staffed the event!
The lone black and white image was inspired by images of the original span’s opening in 1963.
