Jun 12, 2024 - History

This week in history: The long-suffering West Seattle Bridge

Megan Burbank

The Duwamish River near the West Seattle Bridge — In the summer of 2018, wildfire smoke engulfed the Duwamish River south of the West Seattle Bridge. Photo: GENNA MARTIN/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Here's a look at some of the June historical events in the city and beyond, sourced from state history encyclopedia HistoryLink and local newspaper and agency archives.

June 11, 1978: The 550-foot freighter, Chavez, runs into the eastern side of the West Seattle Bridge, shutting it down to cars for six years, HistoryLink recounts.

The ship was carrying 20,000 tons of gypsum at the time of the collision and under the control of Puget Sound Pilot Rolf Neslund, then 80 years old.

June 9, 2022: A reopening date for the West Seattle Bridge is announced following yet another yearslong closure, this time necessitated after the discovery of cracks that moved "2 feet in two weeks," The Seattle Times reported.

The closure coincided with the early COVID-19 pandemic, and "West Seattle became an island, or so it seemed to the more than 80,000 people west of the neighborhood's namesake bridge," wrote the Times' David Kroman.

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This week in history: The long-suffering West Seattle Bridge

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