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Seattle Says So Long to Viaduct – and Not a Tear in Sight

Article by Erik Smith. Published on Monday, October 24, 2011 EST.

World’s Most Spectacular Freeway Becomes Pile of Rubble

 


The Alaskan Way Viaduct at sunset Thursday, its last full day. Seattle politicians called it a blighted, ugly eyesore.

See Also: Seattle’s Lovely Viaduct Meets Wrecking Ball — and Yes, Some of Us Will Miss It
And: Column From 1984 Predicts Viaduct’s Fall

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

 

SEATTLE, Oct. 24.—The world’s most spectacular freeway started falling to the wrecking ball over the weekend, and it was a matter of celebration in a city that has developed a decidedly bad attitude toward the automobile sometime during the last sixty years.

            At a ceremony rather like the ribbon-cuttings that marked the opening of the Alaskan Way Viaduct’s first and final segments in 1953 and 1959, prominent politicians offered a nod to one of the proudest accomplishments of a previous generation, and then explained how delighted they are to be destroying it. Seattle is preparing to replace its stunning double-decker waterfront freeway with a $3.1 billion hole in the ground that will stuff traffic underground and out of sight. There was one pointed absence at the groundbreaking for the new tunnel project. Mayor Mike McGinn stayed home, after fighting a losing battle to knock down the freeway and leave nothing in its place, thus hopelessly snarling traffic in the Queen City and forcing commuters to take the bus.

            All of which made the ceremony a bit more symbolic than your typical groundbreaking. It wasn’t just the start of a new highway project. It was a ceremony that showed just how much conventional wisdom has turned against the automobile, at least among Seattle’s decision-makers.

 

            A Different Kind of Ceremony

 

Back in 1953, Seattle’s mayor didn’t boycott the proceedings. He was an eager participant. The entire town was giddy about the 3.8-mile freeway project, which stretched along Seattle’s waterfront, allowing traffic to bypass downtown Seattle and providing an unforgettable view of the harbor and the downtown skyline. What forward thinking! When the project was finished, it would be possible to drive all the way from Spokane Street to Green Lake without hitting a traffic light, boasted Mayor Allan Pomeroy. “This Viaduct will lead to even greater things,” he said. “Perhaps to one-way streets and still more projects to relieve our traffic congestion.”

The Seattle Times proclaimed April 4 “V-Day,” for “Viaduct Day and Victory Day; a triumph in double measure!”

There were dancing girls and an orchestra, a drill team and a color guard, and of course a beauty queen with an enormous pair of scissors. Right behind the ribbon, an enormous line of cars idled, waiting to drive the thing.

Six years later, when the final segment opened, there was another ribbon-cutting, and Gov. Al Rosellini led the parade, waving to crowds from a vintage-1908 touring car while all Seattle cheered. Total cost in today’s dollars was $136.8 million.

 

            City Turns on Freeway

 

Somewhere along the road, the city lost its love for the freeway. By the seventies urban planners and architecture critics were saying the freeway stood in the way of waterfront redevelopment. It occupied prime real estate on the east side of Alaskan Way, the city’s waterfront frontage street. Over the years the chorus grew louder. Maintenance declined and the highway was allowed to deteriorate. After a similar elevated freeway collapsed in Oakland during the 1989 Loma Prieta Quake, killing 42, the state Department of Transportation did a quick patch-up job, but didn’t make the long-term fixes that would have helped the freeway withstand a world-class temblor.

What made demolition all but certain was this state’s 2001 Nisqually Quake. Most folks figure that if it had lasted a minute or two longer, the entire freeway would have pancaked – together with half the town. Decision-makers dithered for years, as they often do these days in the state’s most populous city. Estimates for a fix-up job ranged as high as $2.3 billion, according to a state Department of Transportation that urged its replacement with a new double-decker for a mere $2.8 billion. But that was a nonstarter with Seattle civic leaders, especially when they learned a narrower and somewhat more congested tunnel could be had for $3.1 billion. State transportation officials swear it won’t cost a penny more than that. Seattle had better hope so: The Legislature passed a bill saying that all cost overruns will have to be borne by the city.
            The southern mile of the Viaduct goes first, while construction crews build a new entrance for the tunnel. The remainder will stand until the tunnel is finished in 2016.

 

            Decided it Was Ugly

 

Saturday was time for a new round of speechmaking, as politicians pointed to the splendid progress they are making by plucking that blighted filthy eyesore from the Seattle waterfront.

Seattle city councilman Tom Rasmussen said Seattle is just plain smarter than it used to be: “When the Viaduct was opened in 1953, we thought that all we had to do to keep traffic moving was to build more freeways, viaducts and highways. And now we know better. We know that we must focus on moving people and goods, and while we do need highways and tunnels, we also need transit and we need bikeways.”

And another governor was there to declare that the state had done good. Gov. Christine Gregoire said demolition will open up the waterfront. “This is a great day for the people of Seattle and Washington state,” she said. “It is a day to celebrate for a better future, for Seattle and the great state of Washington.”

After the ceremony, a reporter asked what the people 52 years from now will say about the tunnel. Will they say it’s ugly? Will they say it has to go? Will they say it ought to be replaced with a highway that has a nice view?

             Gregoire said all you have to do is to visit the city of Madrid, where a similar waterfront freeway has been replaced with a deep-bore tunnel. “I saw what they have done in the city of Madrid, and it is shocking and amazing,” the governor said. “They have restored an entire river, [and built] an entire park in the city because of the deep bore tunnel. So 52 years from now, I think what we’re going to say is what took us so long? We did something great. We were forward thinking. We did what was right for this city and the entire state.”

 

            The Poor Man’s Seattle View Property

 

Some 3,200 people took a final stroll on the freeway’s upper deck Saturday morning for a final look at the wide-open vista – what some have called the poor man’s Seattle view property. It was a typical October day, gray and drizzly, and the Viaduct made its exit in Seattle style. The Rat City Rollergirls, a Seattle roller derby team, won the Department of Transportation’s contest for a half-hour to themselves in the early-morning hours. The derby queens skated end to end.

And then it was over. A front-loader dumped a load of concrete rubble alongside the speech platform. You could take home a piece of the Viaduct for your very own. 

But before traffic was halted for good Friday night, one might wonder how many parents took their kids for a final spin down the Viaduct. Certainly there was one such car on the road, driven by this reporter. And as his Chevy hurtled five stories in the sky at 50 miles an hour, 11-year-old Trent Smith declared, “Daddy, I don’t care about your stupid freeway.”

This was perhaps one of the saddest things for a parent to hear, that his child appears destined someday to be a Seattle politician.

Meanwhile, nine-year-old Rowan Smith stared raptly out the window. The skyscrapers towered over the freeway. A ferryboat was pulling out of the dock.

            He sighed. “I hate progress,” he said.


Delighted politicians celebrate the freeway’s destruction Saturday. Speaking is Judy Clibborn, chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee. To the right stand King County Executive Dow Constantine, Port Commissioner Bill Bryant and Gov. Christine Gregoire.



A different governor was all smiles as the final segment opened in 1959. That’s Al Rosellini, left, with Seafair Princess Diane Gray and Seattle Mayor Gordon Clinton. (From Seattle P-I)



Sears ad from the Seattle Times of April 5, 1953 displays a decidedly more positive attitude.



Giddy Seattleites line up to cruise the Viaduct on opening day, April 4, 1953. (From the Seattle Times, April 5, 1953.)



The same location as the top photo, a few hours before the wreckers hit.


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