Wind, waves and corrosion are all major enemies of these mostly concrete and steel bridges. They are the SR 520 Gov. But floating bridges have at least one disadvantage that others don’t: they can sink. The Lacey V. Murrow bridge (right) is the world's third-longest floating bridge at 6,603 feet. Because the bridge’s disintegration happened relatively slowly, news crews were able to capture the whole thing on camera, broadcasting it to a rapt audience … Thus, this was the first, and so far the only time a Murrow Award has involved two of the Murrow brothers. It was made from concrete sections called “pontoons” that are shaped like barges. Because of this, the new bridge was closed to vehicles for a few days. Floating bridge threatens to sink Likoni cable cars plan Wednesday December 02 2020. For several hours before the Tuesday the 13th catastrophe, a storm has battered the bridge with winds of 80 miles per hour gusting to 120 miles per hour. Traffic between Seattle and the Eastside was a mess, with the Evergreen Point floating bridge on State Route 520 the only available option for crossing Lake … The Murrow Bridge was the brainchild of engineer Homer Hadley, who in 1921 proposed a “floating concrete highway, permanent and indestructible, across Lake Washington.” Figuring out a way to cross that lake, between up-and-coming Seattle and its (at that time) sleepy small-town neighbors to the east, was a particular challenge because an ordinary “fixed-pier” bridge was out of the question: The lake was too deep, and its bottom was too mushy. Per KUOW : Gondry was fresh out of college and something of a rookie in the newsroom. Washington Governor Booth Gardner took a helicopter tour of waterlogged areas and said, “My state is falling apart on me.”. Plans were to update the 1940 pontoons with a new road surface and other improvements. $20 MILLION SETTLEMENT IS REACHED IN SINKING OF SEATTLE FLOATING BRIDGE MI YOUNG PAE | Sep 01, 1992 8:00PM EDT. It was opened to traffic 45 years ago, replacing a ferry run. The Hood Canal Bridge (officially William A. Bugge Bridge) is a floating bridge in the northwest United States, located in western Washington. That’s what happened to the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge just south of Seattle. The Lacey V. Murrow bridge (right) is the world's third-longest floating bridge at 6,603 feet. Washington State Department of Transportation. Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, Seattle, U.S.A., 2,350 meters (floating portion of bridge), completed 2016. The entire section is canted about a 40 degree angle, just like a big battleship rolling over and getting ready to pitch straight down. It is the longest floating bridge in existence. And now it’s up to the top of its wheels. The current bridge was built in 1993, replacing a structure that sank during a severe storm. The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge that connected Seattle to Mercer Island sank to the bottom of Lake Washington 23 years ago this weekend. River valleys were flooded. © 2021 Bonneville International. The crane is gone now,” he said. The scenic bridge is called the world’s longest floating bridge over salt water, at 1 1/2 miles long. Before the storm hit and over the previous months, in order to strip away the old surface on the 1940 bridge, construction crews had been using a process called “hydrodemolition.” This involved directing high-pressure jets of water at the old concrete, as well as storing wastewater inside the pontoons and then pumping it at regular intervals into barges for disposal. The Hood Canal Floating Bridge lies thirty miles northeast of Seattle. We upgraded to a 20 gallon 3-vessel system and temperature controlled conical fermenter. Because the bridge’s disintegration happened relatively slowly, news crews were able to capture the whole thing on camera, broadcasting it to a rapt audience across western Washington. Rebuilt at a cost of $130 million, it reopened Oct. 24, 1982. Construction began on the bridge, named after the state highways director (and brother of famous newsman Edward R. Murrow), in 1939; it was completed 18 months later. “While everyone must have understood that a floating bridge could sink, the thought that a sinking was a real risk must have been remote.”. 1. The bridge’s namesake was director of the Washington State Highway Department in the 1930s and 1940s, and grew up in Skagit County. The handful of workers on the bridge that morning evacuated safely and nobody was injured when the old bridge sank. A few days of rain and high winds filled the pontoons with water, and the bridge broke apart and sank. He’d been flying around that Sunday morning getting a look at flooding in the Snoqualmie Valley from the heavy rains that week. Whole damn thing sank into Lake Washington. Non-floating “high rise” structures at each end also hold the pontoons in place and allow for boats to pass underneath. Ironically, the namesake for the award KIRO won was Lacey’s famous CBS newsman brother, Ed. On November 25th, 1990, the I-90 Floating Bridge across Lake Washington collapsed. Crews from an Illinois-based company called Traylor Brothers were working on a $30 million project to renovate the old bridge. After a howling wind- and rainstorm on Thanksgiving Day, Washington state’s historic floating Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge breaks apart and sinks to the bottom of Lake Washington, between Seattle and its suburbs to the east. Contents[show] Design of the bridge The bridge is a floating or pontoon bridge, supported by floating barges. Planning and execution of the project, the report said, should have considered the marine aspects of the structure and the demolition work. The replacement Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge opened to vehicle traffic in 1994 and continues to serve tens of thousands of commuters every day. It’s the world’s longest floating bridge over an expanse of ocean water. It was 27 years ago that a bizarre disaster struck, sending major portions of the old Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge to the bottom of Lake Washington. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. (A parallel bridge had been completed the year before, effectively doubling the amount of traffic that could cross the lake.) This is the news report from KING 5 TV in Seattle, WA. A study of the disaster later determined that multiple factors were to blame for the dramatic sinking of the old bridge. Water had likely been accumulating in the old pontoons from the beginning of the “hydrodemolition” process, and there were other water intrusion problems created when access holes were cut into the concrete and not properly sealed. He arrived over the bridge just in time to deliver a gripping live play-by-play. It had been closed to vehicle traffic for nearly two years and a new bridge had been built alongside. The state highway department alleged that construction crews had left the pontoons’ hatches open, leaving them vulnerable to the weekend’s heavy rains and large waves. Photo credit: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com Homer Hadley Bridge (left) and Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge (right). As they disappeared under the water, they pulled more and more of the crumbling roadway down with them. Related: Harrowing Burien airliner crash covered up by time. Once the bridge opened, access from Seattle improved, and the area gradually grew into a bedroom community. Highway workers have sealed more than 30,000 feet of cracks on the floating span between Seattle and Medina in just the past 16 years. The pontoons are connected together to form the long bridge from the Mount Baker neighborhood to Mercer Island. In November 1990, the 6,600-foot-long bridge, made of 22 floating bolted-together pontoons, was in the process of being converted from a two-way road to a one-way road. The notion of "going pro" was still more daydream than plan, but we picked our name - a tribute to one of the unique aspects of Seattle (and fixture in our daily commute) - just in case. Bellevue was founded in 1869 by William Meydenbauer and was officially incorporated on March 21, 1953. Copyright © 2021 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes. The high-rise plummets into Lake Washington and is severed from the floating bridge deck, or pontoons, which begin to sink. Travelling always sucks around holidays, and it gets exponentially worse when, I don’t know, a floating bridge sinks. (For its part, the construction company refused to accept responsibility for the disaster, countering that “the probable cause of the failure was progressive bond slip at lapped splices in the bottom slab…due to failure in bond.” It did eventually agree to pay the state $20 million, however.) Cruising Distances in the Pacific Northwest From/To Bellingham, WA, 48° 45' 13.91" N, 122° 29' 53.78" W - NOAA Chart 18424; Speed= 7.0: knots : From To Nautical Miles Hr:Min (Video screengrab), LISTEN: Bit of history: Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge sinks. Kari Gondry — known then as Kari Owen — was working as the news editor that morning, and took the call from the tipster. And I said, ‘No, no. ^ Lange, G. (1999). Both bridges were engineering marvels. WSDOT later sued the contractor for $69 million but ultimately settled for just $20 million. Twenty-three years ago today the eastbound Interstate 90 floating bridge was opened, ending years of debate about connecting Interstate 5 to I … Right now the concrete is bubbling. But at least it didn't sink, like the I-90 floating bridge did in the '90s. Bizarre Lake Washington disaster struck 27 years ago, The Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge sank to the bottom of Lake Washington on Nov. 25, 1990. Brendle pointed the copter toward the middle of Lake Washington. “And another section of the bridge is now giving away, breaking as I’m watching it. “There’s a huge yellow crane, one of those big construction cranes. Sections of a closed interstate highway bridge across Lake Washington sank Sunday after a round of stormy weather, and engineers said the rest could collapse at any time. The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, also known as the 520 Bridge and officially the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge, carries Washington State Route 520 across Lake Washington from Seattle to its eastern suburbs.The 7,710-foot-long (2,350 m) floating span is the longest floating bridge in the world, as well as the world's widest measuring 116 feet (35 m) at its midpoint. It is 7,497 feet (2,285 meters), or 1.4 miles (metric), long and spans Lake Washington, letting vehicles pass to and from Seattle and Bellevue, Washington. 1. And when I made the last pass over a few moments ago, Rick, it was in fact high and dry. Still, people scoffed at what they called “Hadley’s Folly” (one civic organization declared that his “chain of scows across Lake Washington would stand out as a municipal eyesore”), but eventually, mostly because they had no other options, they came around to his way of thinking. The 520 bridge is going to sink. By the morning of Nov. 25, 1990, the bridge was 50 years old. “Approximately a third of the old Mercer Island floating bridge that they have been rehabilitating has broken away from the west end and has drifted out at an angle approximately 20 degrees,” Brendle told KIRO anchors Linda Thomas and Rick Van Cise and thousands of listeners that Sunday morning. With wind in the forecast, authorities decided to bring in tugboats to hold the new bridge in place until repairs could be made. In 1979, a section of the Hood Canal floating bridge foundered in a storm. In 1991, KIRO Radio won a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for their coverage of the sinking of the Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge. Although, when they did that, three of the hooks that hold the pontoons of the two bridges together came off, so they have to fix that. By the end of the day, the bridge was gone. The Washington State Department of Transportation was spending a total of $1.5 billion to improve seven miles of the I-90 corridor into downtown Seattle. Albert D. Rosellini (Evergreen Point) Bridge (7,708 feet), the I-90 Lacey V. Murrow Bridge (6,620 feet), the SR 104 Hood Canal Bridge (6,521 feet), and the I-90 Homer M. Hadley Bridge (5,811 feet). The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, connecting Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula, was the third-longest suspension bridge in the world, while the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, which linked Seattle and Mercer Island, was the largest floating structure in the world. You gotta do it. All rights reserved. -- Hood Canal Floating Bridge: Feb. 13, 1979; windstorm breaks up and sinks the span. The Governor Albert D. Rossellini Bridge—Evergreen Point bridge (often called just the SR 520 bridge) in Seattle is the longest floating bridge on the planet. So this crane will be pitching over any moment and going underwater. It will also go to the bottom of Lake Washington,” Brendle said. The bridge was an engineering marvel when it was built in 1940. The Washington state Department of Transportation and the contractor renovating the 50-year-old Inte. Its pontoons are 60 feet wide and support a roadway with three lanes of eastbound traffic. (He added: “It was awesome.”). Listen: KIRO traffic reporter flies over sinking bridge. Lake Washington Floating Bridge is dedicated on July 2, 1940. Cable cars in La Paz, Bolivia. Head that direction,'” Gondry said. Now it lifts up. It carries State Route 104 across Hood Canal of Puget Sound and connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. Further exacerbating these problems were a lack of sufficient water-level monitoring devices inside the pontoons, and too few pumps on-site to save the bridge once the problem was noticed that Sunday morning. Traffic between Seattle and the Eastside was a mess, with the Evergreen Point floating bridge on State Route 520 the only available option for crossing Lake Washington. She says she called Brendle up in his helicopter immediately on the two-way radio. “The principles of good marine practice were not a specific contract requirement, nor were they followed on this project,” the report said. They float on the lake surface, and are anchored to the bottom with steel cables. It had been stormy that week. so that the water can flow through and not cause too much damage to the bridge. And no matter how much planning goes into bridge construction or how much engineers "overdesign" bridges to account for unexpectedly extreme circumstances, floating bridges can and do fail. Washington state is the floating bridge capital of the world, with four of the five longest floating bridges. For whatever reason, at midday on November 25, the center pontoons began to sink. On November 25, 1990, after a week of high winds and rain, the 50-year old Lacey V. Murrow Bridge (Lake Washington Floating Bridge) breaks apart and plunges into the mud beneath Lake Washington. The 520 bridge, also called the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, runs East from Seattle to Medina across Lake Washington. $20 MILLION SETTLEMENT IS REACHED IN SINKING OF SEATTLE FLOATING BRIDGE. SEATTLE -- Wednesday is an historic anniversary in the Seattle area as it marks 25 years since the I-90 floating bridge sank to the bottom of Lake … Right around 9 a.m., KIRO got an anonymous phone tip that something big was going on at the old bridge. Natural disasters can ruin a lot of human creations, and floating bridges are no exception. On Tuesday, February 13, 1979, about 7 a.m., the western half of the Hood Canal Bridge sinks during a severe storm. The Murrow Bridge was soon rebuilt. “I told Paul, ‘Hey, stop what you’re doing and head over to the bridge.’ I think he thought I was crazy because I was just this kid. Out on Lake Washington, high winds, rain and waves were striking the old pontoons. But as those old concrete pontoons disappeared beneath the waves, they damaged the anchor cables on the adjacent new bridge, and created a serious potential safety threat. After a howling wind- and rainstorm on Thanksgiving Day, Washington state’s historic floating Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge breaks apart and sinks to the bottom of Lake Washington, between Seattle and its suburbs to the east. “It looked like a big old battleship that had been hit by enemy fire and was sinking into the briny deep,” said one observer.