page_title: West Seattle Bridge
section_title: Replacement bridge project
hierarchical_section_title: West Seattle Bridge / History / Replacement bridge project
caption_attribution_description: English: At 2:38 a.m. on June 11, 1978, the freighter CHAVEZ rams the old West Seattle Bridge over the Duwamish West Waterway, thereby closing it to automobile traffic for the next six years. Leading to the construction of a new high bridge. The Chavez was 550 feet long and carrying 20,000 tons of gypsum under the command of 80-year-old Puget Sound Pilot Rolf Neslund (1897-1980) and its master, Gojko Gospodnetic, when, just before dawn, it struck the east end of the bridge. A Coast Guard board of inquiry found both officers negligent. Neslund retired two weeks after the accident. Gospodnetic, a Yugoslav national, was fired. See Seattle City Archives website for the story of how some West Seattleites threatened to secede from the city to get the bridge built. Item 73167, Engineering Department Photographic Negatives (Record Series 2613-07), Seattle Municipal Archives.
context_page_description: The high-level West Seattle Bridge, officially the Jeanette Williams Memorial Bridge, is a cantilevered segmental bridge that serves as the primary connection between West Seattle and the rest of the city. It was built between 1981 and 1984 after the previous bascule bridge was deemed inoperable as a result of being struck by the freighter Antonio Chavez in 1978.
  The bridge spans the east and west channels that form the mouth of the Duwamish River at Elliott Bay, crossing over Harbor Island. Its main approaches are Fauntleroy Way S.W. from the west and the Spokane Street Viaduct from the east. The viaduct continues east to Interstate 5 at Columbian Way, forming a three-mile arterial between West Seattle and I-5. The navigational clearance height of the high-level West Seattle Bridge is 140 feet.
  The low-level Spokane Street Bridge of swing-span design spans the west channel of the Duwamish River immediately north of the high-level bridge. The low-level bridge carries the surface-level Spokane Street and has a navigational clearance of 45 feet.
context_section_description: Planning for the bridge was hampered by difficulties in receiving funding. In large part, this is because the bridge was not a designated highway. A 1968 Forward Thrust ballot measure included $16.7 million in funding for the bridge, largely to receive votes from West Seattle residents. Other funding sources included a state program for funding urban streets and money from a maintenance fund.
  After a long drawn-out process, three companies eventually bid to design the bridge for $1.5 million. However, the city engineer chose a fourth company that was financially connected to the speaker of the state house. The price from this fourth company was triple the cost of the other three. This was a result of a series of bribes involving the head of the House Transportation Committee, the city engineer and others. Despite the 68 percent support in the 1968 ballot measure, the state withdrew its urban streets money due to the scandal. In 1976 and 1977, the conspirators were placed on trial and imprisoned.
  After the scandal, the project was considered dead. Norbert Tiemann, a federal highway regulator, stated that there would essentially be no chance of the project receiving federal funds for completion. Tiemann also quipped, "Short of a tug knocking it down (which could trigger federal special bridge replacement funds), there is nothing else. And you certainly wouldn't want to go that route." In March 1978, several prominent West Seattle residents filed a petition to organize a secession referendum, with the hopes of finding state funding for a new bridge to serve their independent city. The secession campaign was required to gather 29,000 signatures for a ballot measure, but were unable to meet the threshold before the drawbridges were permanently closed two months later.
  On June 11, 1978, a ship struck the old bridge, which left it open and unrepairable. Because of this, the project qualified for funds from the federal Office of Special Bridge Replacement. However, with many other damaged bridges to replace, this program alone did not have sufficient funding. While federal lawmakers were opposed to appropriating funds to a high-level bridge, Seattle City Council member Jeanette Williams, who served on the council from 1970 to 1989, lobbied Congress for the bridge and successfully secured funds with help from Senator Warren Magnuson. The bridge was complete in 1984, and the smaller Spokane Street Bridge which parallels it was built at the same time.
  Before the bridge opened, many of the neighborhoods in West Seattle had low property values because of the difficulty in getting downtown. The bridge caused an increase in property values as well as a development boom, as developers constructed new multi-family housing. This new development also led to an increase in traffic volumes throughout the neighborhood.
caption: The Antonio Chavez, the ship that hit the old bridge