Tacoma’s Crumbling Infrastructure
Public Works Commissioner William Welsh warns that over a dozen city bridges are rotting and unsafe for public travel.
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William Welsh, commissioner of public works, has completed his estimate for the coming year, which nears the million-dollar mark. According to Mr. Welsh, many of the city's bridges are in a dangerous condition. The timbers in bridge No. 7 on Thirtieth Street are too thoroughly decayed to be safe, and portions of the bank supporting the auxiliary bent at the east end are liable to give way at the commencement of the rainy season. On North E Street, bridge No. 21 should be condemned or repaired at once, as the entire structure is badly decayed with some main posts hanging by the caps and braces. He recommends extensive repairs for over a dozen other bridges, including those on Puyallup Avenue, Pacific Avenue, and Tacoma Avenue.
“The entire structure is badly decayed, some of its main posts being entirely without footing and hanging by the caps and braces.”
A century before modern concerns about Tacoma’s aging infrastructure and the cost of maintenance, the city was already grappling with the precarious state of its wooden bridges. The constant struggle to balance a massive municipal budget against the literal rot of public transit remains a persistent theme in Tacoma’s civic discourse.
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