George Washington Memorial Bridge
Encyclopedia
For other bridges of the same name, see Washington Bridge (disambiguation)
.
The George Washington Memorial Bridge (commonly called the Aurora Bridge) is a cantilever
and truss
bridge
that carries Aurora Avenue N. (State Route 99
) over the west end of Seattle's Lake Union
between Queen Anne
and Fremont
, just east of the Fremont Cut
. The bridge is 2945 ft (897.6 m) long, 70 ft (21.3 m) wide, and 167 ft (50.9 m) above the water, and is owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation
.
The bridge was opened to traffic on February 22, 1932. It was accepted to the National Register of Historic Places
in 1982. The bridge is a popular location for suicide
jumpers and numerous reports have used the bridge as a case study in fields ranging from suicide prevention to the effects of prehospital care on trauma
victims. In 1998 a bus driver
was shot and killed while driving over the bridge, causing his bus to crash and resulting in the death of one of the passengers.
. There are two v-shaped cantilever sections supporting the bridge deck, each 325 ft (99.1 m) long, balanced on large concrete pilings at opposite sides of the ship canal which serve as the two main supporting anchors. Some 828 timber piles
were driven for the foundation of the south anchor and 684 piles for the north. They range in size from 110 to 120 ft (33.5 to 36.6 m) and rest 50 to 55 ft (15.2 to 16.8 m) below the surface of the water. Together, the anchors support a load of 8,000 tons. Their construction required a pile driver
that was specially designed to work underwater.
A 150 ft (45.7 m) long Warren truss suspended span connects the two cantilevers in the middle. The bridge's main span is 475 ft (144.8 m) long. At either end of the bridge there are additional Warren truss spans which connect the cantilevered spans to the highway.
's 200th birthday. It opened to traffic the same day.
The bridge was the final link in what was then called the Pacific Highway (today's U.S. Route 99), which ran from Canada to Mexico. The bridge crosses the Lake Union section of the Lake Washington Ship Canal
and, unlike earlier bridges across the canal, the height of the Aurora Bridge eliminated the need for a drawbridge
. The Seattle City Council voted to build connecting portions of the highway through the Woodland Park Zoo
, a decision which generated considerable controversy at the time.
It was designed by the Seattle architectural firm Jacobs & Ober, with Ralph Ober as the lead engineer on the project. Ober died in August, 1931, of a brain hemorrhage while the bridge was still under construction. Federal funding programs were not yet available, so the bridge was funded by Seattle, King County, and the state of Washington.
The bridge was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places
on January 2, 1980 for its "functional and aesthetic" design qualities and for its historical status as the first bridge constructed in the region without streetcar tracks. It was accepted to the National Register on July 16, 1982.
A local landmark, the Fremont Troll
—a large cement sculpture of a troll clutching a real-life Volkswagen Beetle
—was installed under the bridge's north end in 1990. Up to half of the $40,000 cost for the artwork was donated from Seattle's Neighborhood Matching Fund, a local program to raise money for community projects. The sculpture was heavily vandalized in the year following its construction and large floodlights were installed on the bridge to discourage further damage.
Following the collapse of the Minneapolis I-35W arch-truss bridge on August 1, 2007, the Washington State Department of Transportation was directed to perform inspections of all steel cantilever bridges in the state that used gusset plates in their design, including the George Washington Memorial Bridge. The bridge had earlier been certified as structurally sound with no serious deficiencies detected.
In 2007, the Federal Highway Administration
National Bridge Inventory
found the bridge to be "functionally obsolete". The bridge was given a sufficiency rating of 55.2% and evaluated to be "better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is". Its foundations and railings met the acceptable standards and no immediate corrective action was needed to improve it.
Beginning in June 2011, The George Washington Memorial Bridge will undergo extensive seismic retrofitting. The retrofitting is expected to complete in Fall of 2012 at a cost of $5.7 million US dollars.
access make it a popular location for suicide
jumpers. Since construction, there have been over 230 completed suicides from the bridge, with nearly 50 deaths occurring in the past decade. The first suicide occurred in January 1932, when a shoe salesman leapt from the bridge before it was completed.
Numerous reports have been written about the high incidence of suicide on the bridge, many of them using the bridge as a case study in fields ranging from suicide prevention to the effects of prehospital care on trauma victims.
Despite the force of impact, jumpers occasionally survive the fall from the bridge, though not without sustaining serious injuries.
News sources have referred to the George Washington Memorial Bridge as a suicide bridge
and, in December 2006, six emergency phones
and 18 signs were installed on the bridge to encourage people to seek help instead of jumping. In late 2006 a group of community activists and political leaders living near the bridge created the Fremont Individuals and Employees Nonprofit to Decrease Suicides (FRIENDS), their primary focus being the installation of a suicide barrier on the bridge.
In 2007, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire
allocated $1.4 million in her supplemental budget for the construction of an 8 feet (2.4 m) high suicide prevention fence to help reduce the number of suicides on the bridge. Construction of the fence began in Spring 2010 and was completed in February 2011.
, was shot and killed by a passenger, Silas Cool, while driving across the bridge. Cool then shot himself as the bus veered across two lanes of traffic and plunge
d off the bridge's eastern side onto the roof of an apartment building below. Herman Liebelt, a passenger on the bus, later died of injuries he sustained in the accident.
A service for McLaughlin was held on December 8, 1998, at Key Arena in Seattle. Numerous state and county officials and over 100 transit drivers attended the service, which included a procession of over eighty Metro buses and vans. Metro announced their plans to retire the number 359 as a route designation and replace it with route 358.
According to estimates from the Washington State Department of Transportation, repairs to the bridge cost over $18,000. Medical claims from the victims against King County amounted to $2.3 million.
Washington Bridge (disambiguation)
Washington Bridge may refer to:in the United States*Washington Bridge , in Milford and Stratford, Connecticut, over the Housatonic River*George Washington Bridge, in New York City, New York, over Hudson River to New Jersey...
.
The George Washington Memorial Bridge (commonly called the Aurora Bridge) is a cantilever
Cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
and truss
Truss bridge
A truss bridge is a bridge composed of connected elements which may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges...
bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
that carries Aurora Avenue N. (State Route 99
Washington State Route 99
State Route 99, abbreviated SR 99, commonly called Highway 99, is a numbered state highway in the U.S. state of Washington extending just under from Fife in the south to Everett in the north, with a gap in Tukwila.-Southern division:...
) over the west end of Seattle's Lake Union
Lake Union
Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the Seattle, Washington city limits.-Origins:A glacial lake, its basin was dug 12,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington and Seattle's Green, Bitter, and Haller Lakes.-Name:...
between Queen Anne
Queen Anne, Seattle, Washington
Queen Anne Hill is a neighborhood and geographic feature in Seattle, Washington, northwest of downtown. The neighborhood sits on the highest named hill in the city, with a maximum elevation of . It covers an area of , and has a population of about 28,000...
and Fremont
Fremont, Seattle, Washington
Fremont is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Originally a separate city, it was annexed to Seattle in 1891. Named after Fremont, Nebraska, the hometown of two of its founders, L. H. Griffith and E...
, just east of the Fremont Cut
Fremont Cut
The Fremont Cut is a part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal—which passes through the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington, linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound—that connects Lake Union to the east with Salmon Bay to the west. It is long and wide. The center channel is wide and deep...
. The bridge is 2945 ft (897.6 m) long, 70 ft (21.3 m) wide, and 167 ft (50.9 m) above the water, and is owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation
Washington State Department of Transportation
The Washington State Department of Transportation , was established in 1905. The agency, led by a Secretary and overseen by the Governor, is a Washington governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of the state's transportation infrastructure...
.
The bridge was opened to traffic on February 22, 1932. It was accepted to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1982. The bridge is a popular location for suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
jumpers and numerous reports have used the bridge as a case study in fields ranging from suicide prevention to the effects of prehospital care on trauma
Physical trauma
Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...
victims. In 1998 a bus driver
Bus driver
A bus driver, bus operator or omnibus driver is a person who drives buses professionally. Bus drivers typically drive their vehicles between bus stations or stops. They often drop off and pick up passengers on a predetermined route schedule. In British English a different term, coach drivers, is...
was shot and killed while driving over the bridge, causing his bus to crash and resulting in the death of one of the passengers.
Design
The bridge is 2945 ft (897.6 m) long, 70 ft (21.3 m) wide, 167 ft (50.9 m) above the water and is owned and operated by the Washington State Department of TransportationWashington State Department of Transportation
The Washington State Department of Transportation , was established in 1905. The agency, led by a Secretary and overseen by the Governor, is a Washington governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of the state's transportation infrastructure...
. There are two v-shaped cantilever sections supporting the bridge deck, each 325 ft (99.1 m) long, balanced on large concrete pilings at opposite sides of the ship canal which serve as the two main supporting anchors. Some 828 timber piles
Deep foundation
A deep foundation is a type of foundation distinguished from shallow foundations by the depth they are embedded into the ground. There are many reasons a geotechnical engineer would recommend a deep foundation over a shallow foundation, but some of the common reasons are very large design loads, a...
were driven for the foundation of the south anchor and 684 piles for the north. They range in size from 110 to 120 ft (33.5 to 36.6 m) and rest 50 to 55 ft (15.2 to 16.8 m) below the surface of the water. Together, the anchors support a load of 8,000 tons. Their construction required a pile driver
Pile driver
A pile driver is a mechanical device used to drive piles into soil to provide foundation support for buildings or other structures. The term is also used in reference to members of the construction crew that work with pile-driving rigs....
that was specially designed to work underwater.
A 150 ft (45.7 m) long Warren truss suspended span connects the two cantilevers in the middle. The bridge's main span is 475 ft (144.8 m) long. At either end of the bridge there are additional Warren truss spans which connect the cantilevered spans to the highway.
History
Construction on the bridge piers began in 1929, with construction of the bridge following shortly afterwards in 1931, with its dedication held on February 22, 1932, George WashingtonGeorge Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's 200th birthday. It opened to traffic the same day.
The bridge was the final link in what was then called the Pacific Highway (today's U.S. Route 99), which ran from Canada to Mexico. The bridge crosses the Lake Union section of the Lake Washington Ship Canal
Lake Washington Ship Canal
The Lake Washington Ship Canal, which runs through the City of Seattle, Washington, connects the fresh water body of Lake Washington with the salt water inland sea of Puget Sound. The Ship Canal includes a series of locks, modeled after the Panama Canal, to accommodate the different water levels...
and, unlike earlier bridges across the canal, the height of the Aurora Bridge eliminated the need for a drawbridge
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...
. The Seattle City Council voted to build connecting portions of the highway through the Woodland Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo
Woodland Park Zoo is a zoological garden around the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Occupying the western half of Woodland Park, the zoo began as a small menagerie on the estate of Guy C. Phinney, a Canadian-born lumber mill owner and real estate developer...
, a decision which generated considerable controversy at the time.
It was designed by the Seattle architectural firm Jacobs & Ober, with Ralph Ober as the lead engineer on the project. Ober died in August, 1931, of a brain hemorrhage while the bridge was still under construction. Federal funding programs were not yet available, so the bridge was funded by Seattle, King County, and the state of Washington.
The bridge was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on January 2, 1980 for its "functional and aesthetic" design qualities and for its historical status as the first bridge constructed in the region without streetcar tracks. It was accepted to the National Register on July 16, 1982.
A local landmark, the Fremont Troll
Fremont Troll
The Fremont Troll is a piece of public art in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States.-Description:...
—a large cement sculpture of a troll clutching a real-life Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
—was installed under the bridge's north end in 1990. Up to half of the $40,000 cost for the artwork was donated from Seattle's Neighborhood Matching Fund, a local program to raise money for community projects. The sculpture was heavily vandalized in the year following its construction and large floodlights were installed on the bridge to discourage further damage.
Following the collapse of the Minneapolis I-35W arch-truss bridge on August 1, 2007, the Washington State Department of Transportation was directed to perform inspections of all steel cantilever bridges in the state that used gusset plates in their design, including the George Washington Memorial Bridge. The bridge had earlier been certified as structurally sound with no serious deficiencies detected.
In 2007, the Federal Highway Administration
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two "programs," the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program...
National Bridge Inventory
National Bridge Inventory
The National Bridge Inventory is a database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, with information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States that have roads passing above or below. This is similar to the grade crossing identifier number database compiled by the Federal Railroad...
found the bridge to be "functionally obsolete". The bridge was given a sufficiency rating of 55.2% and evaluated to be "better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is". Its foundations and railings met the acceptable standards and no immediate corrective action was needed to improve it.
Beginning in June 2011, The George Washington Memorial Bridge will undergo extensive seismic retrofitting. The retrofitting is expected to complete in Fall of 2012 at a cost of $5.7 million US dollars.
Suicides
The bridge's height and pedestrianPedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...
access make it a popular location for suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
jumpers. Since construction, there have been over 230 completed suicides from the bridge, with nearly 50 deaths occurring in the past decade. The first suicide occurred in January 1932, when a shoe salesman leapt from the bridge before it was completed.
Numerous reports have been written about the high incidence of suicide on the bridge, many of them using the bridge as a case study in fields ranging from suicide prevention to the effects of prehospital care on trauma victims.
Despite the force of impact, jumpers occasionally survive the fall from the bridge, though not without sustaining serious injuries.
News sources have referred to the George Washington Memorial Bridge as a suicide bridge
Suicide bridge
A suicide bridge is a bridge used frequently to die by suicide, most typically by jumping off and into the water below ....
and, in December 2006, six emergency phones
Emergency telephone
An emergency telephone is a phone specifically provided for making calls to emergency services and is most often found in a place of special danger or where it is likely that there will only be a need to make emergency calls....
and 18 signs were installed on the bridge to encourage people to seek help instead of jumping. In late 2006 a group of community activists and political leaders living near the bridge created the Fremont Individuals and Employees Nonprofit to Decrease Suicides (FRIENDS), their primary focus being the installation of a suicide barrier on the bridge.
In 2007, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire
Christine Gregoire
Christine O'Grady "Chris" Gregoire is the 22nd and current Governor of the state of Washington, and a member of the Democratic Party. Gregoire defeated Republican candidate Dino Rossi in 2004, and again in 2008. She is the second female governor of Washington...
allocated $1.4 million in her supplemental budget for the construction of an 8 feet (2.4 m) high suicide prevention fence to help reduce the number of suicides on the bridge. Construction of the fence began in Spring 2010 and was completed in February 2011.
Metro bus tragedy
On November 27, 1998, King County Metro driver Mark McLaughlin, the driver of a southbound route 359 Express articulated busArticulated bus
An articulated bus is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usually a single-deck design, and comprises two rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint...
, was shot and killed by a passenger, Silas Cool, while driving across the bridge. Cool then shot himself as the bus veered across two lanes of traffic and plunge
Bus plunge
Bus plunge stories are a nickname for a journalistic practice of reporting bus mishaps in short articles that invariably describe the vehicle as "plunging" from a bridge or hillside road...
d off the bridge's eastern side onto the roof of an apartment building below. Herman Liebelt, a passenger on the bus, later died of injuries he sustained in the accident.
A service for McLaughlin was held on December 8, 1998, at Key Arena in Seattle. Numerous state and county officials and over 100 transit drivers attended the service, which included a procession of over eighty Metro buses and vans. Metro announced their plans to retire the number 359 as a route designation and replace it with route 358.
According to estimates from the Washington State Department of Transportation, repairs to the bridge cost over $18,000. Medical claims from the victims against King County amounted to $2.3 million.