Mentally kicking myself for not checking the DOT website before I headed over to the “dark side” (hey, Sequim is definitely sunnier than Seattle), I managed to squeak across the Hood Canal Bridge ahead of its intermittant closures for safety inspections, as they do every spring.
Why should I care? Well, the Hood Canal Bridge connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. Without it, you’d have to go all the way around the Hood Canal to Olympia before heading to Seattle (about 3.5 hours), OR take the ferry from Port Townsend to Keystone on Whidbey Island and then use the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry or the Deception Pass Bridge to reach the east shore of Puget Sound (more than 2.5 hours plus ferry wait and transit time). So much simpler to take the Hood Canal Bridge and a ferry (about 1.5 hours to downtown Seattle, including ferry transit time).
Western highrise of the Hood Canal Bridge from Shine Tidelands State Park.
Carrying 19,000 vehicles per day along its 1.5 mile length, the Hood Canal Bridge is the longest floating bridge in the world located in a saltwater tidal basin (and the fourth longest floating bridge overall). The Hood Canal is deep – as much 340 feet in places – so installing the supports for a suspension bridge was out of the question. The bridge with its floating pontoon structure was the first of its kind to be built over saltwater. It’s also subject to as much as 18 feet of tidal variance.
Hood Canal Bridge from the eastern (Kitsap County) side.
Before the bridge was built, ferries ran across the Hood Canal between Lofall on the Kitsap County side and Southpoint on the Jefferson County side.
Built in 1961 at a cost of $25 million (about $218 million in today’s dollars), the bridge was opened August 12, 1961, 15 months behind schedule. In December 1958, two pontoons sank in the Duwamish Waterway in Seattle, where the bridge was being fabricated. Then, during construction, storms damaged bolted joints between pontoons, convincing architects and the contractor that the design was faulty. The plans were modified and a new contractor was hired. Apparently governmental overruns and delays have been the norm for my entire life.
The Hood Canal Bridge, 1965. Photo from Washington State Archives.
Less than 20 years after it was completed, the bridge collapsed in February 13, 1979 when a freak windstorm with gusts over 100mph blew across the bridge.
An earlier low tide had caused the cables holding the bridge to slacken. With the wind and flood current pushing in the same direction, the bridge was bowing. By 2 a.m., Charles Myers, opened it to relieve the pressure. When George Tyner, also a bridge tender, arrived at 6:30, the wind was up to 87 mph and gusting to 100. The 15-foot waves sweeping over the bridge had dislodged deck hatches and the pontoons were flooding.
With their control tower starting to careen, Meyers and Tyner abandoned ship (bridge) in Tyner’s pickup. Shortly afterward, the west pontoon broke loose and sank, taking Meyer’s Plymouth Fury with it. During the next 10 minutes, they watched 12 west-side pontoons sink. Thanks to the opening, the east side pontoons survived.
The local radio station in Port Angeles, KONP, reported on the sinking within 15 minutes, a story with major impact to the Olympic Peninsula. Thankfully, there were no injuries or fatalities, well other than Charles Myers’ Plymouth Fury and a few WSDOT trucks. The bridge’s pontoons and concrete gravity anchors were left on the bottom of the canal. The rest was either demolished or removed.
The Hood Canal Bridge collapse. Photo from the Washington State Department of Highways, Washington State Archives.
Within a week, the Department of Transportation had the ferry Kaleetan (still part of the ferry fleet), running from Edmonds to Port Townsend. A week later, the passenger ferry Islander was running between Lofall and South Point while the truck ferry Beach Girl was running between Salsbury Point and Shine.
WSDOT continued to shuffle ferries and routes, cancelling the Edmonds-Port Townsend run in less than a year, but adding larger ferries to other runs, before the Hood Canal Bridge reopened on October 24, 1982. The cost to repair: $150 million (or $218 million today).
The WSDOT replaced the east-half floating portion of the bridge, the east and west approach spans, the east and west transition spans, and the west-half electrical system in a project than ran for 6 years, from 2003-2009. Once again, it was ferries to the rescue, with a reinstated Lofall – South Point route.
Time lapse video of the removal of the draw span in May 2009, courtesy of the Washington State Department of Transporation.
Links of Interest:
- WSDOT Hood Canal traffic alerts and cameras – trust me, check this before you go
- The Windstorm That Sank the Hood Canal Bridge 40 Years Ago
- History of the Lofall dock, with some historic photos
Location:
State Route 104 between Kitsap and Jefferson Counties
Very interesting article on the bridge collapse and reformation. Really liked the time lapse video.
Prior to joining Apollo in 2012, Daniel was an investment banking generalist at Moelis
& Company.
Took that ferry every day to work on Indian Island for about a year. I don’t think I knew there was supposed to be a bridge there! Actually glad it was a ferry, a chance to walk about and buy a big cookie, yes, almost daily. Thank you for the article.