Spanning the Tide: Construction of the Seattle Bridge
Engineers race to complete a vital, 3,000-foot-long wooden passage across the tide flats, with calls to add safety bypasses for teams and wagons.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The long bridge extending southward to the tide flats is being pushed toward completion. The piles are driven a distance of 3,000 feet, and the capping and planking are following closely upon the heels of the pile-driver. The bridge is 16 feet wide and will have a footway of four feet wide and a roadway of about 12 feet. It appears to be strong and well and cheaply built. The work is under the immediate supervision of Mr. E. H. Amos, the engineer. The bridge is in all over 3,000 feet in length, but owing to delays and difficulties already overcome by Mr. Amos, this work is about half completed. The City Council should not fail to have turnouts constructed at suitable distances along the bridge, in case of meeting teams or other conveyances that have no chance of escape from a deadlock. If they should be constructed, say 30 or 36 feet wide and 50 feet long, they would not need to cost to exceed $50, and damage by one such run-away might be lessened that amount.
“The City Council should not fail to have turnouts constructed at suitable distances along the bridge, in case of meeting teams or other conveyances that have no chance of escape from a deadlock.”
This 1886 bridge was an early effort to master Seattle’s treacherous, sprawling tide flats, which were later filled in to create the SODO and industrial districts. The concern for 'turnouts' mirrors modern infrastructure debates, where the lack of adequate space for vehicle conflict resolution leads to the same gridlock today's commuters face.
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