Thurston County Farmers Petition for a Chehalis River Bridge
Residents south of the Chehalis ask county commissioners for a crossing near Rochester and Gate City, saying they are cut off from Olympia markets for half the year.
A numerously signed petition from freeholders of Thurston county was presented to the board of county commissioners today, urging the construction of a bridge across the Chehalis river, near Rochester and Gate City, one-quarter of a mile east from the county line between Thurston and Chehalis counties. The object of this petition is to allow the large number of citizens living south of the Chehalis river an opportunity of getting into Thurston county to do their trading and other business. As it now stands, people living south of the Chehalis river can only get to market about six months in the year, and then only by a dangerous ford. As this section of the country is of no little importance, the necessity of the bridge at the earliest possible moment is clear to everybody. There is nothing like good roads and bridges to develop Thurston county.
“There is nothing like good roads and bridges to develop Thurston county.”
Then, a river ford could isolate farms for half the year, and a county bridge was a lifeline to market. Today, Thurston County's growth debates still turn on how transportation links decide which communities can reach jobs, services and customers.
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