Washington Roads - Spokane St./W. Seattle Br.

Spokane Street and West Seattle Bridge



First glimpses of the West Seattle Bridge are from Marginal Way NB. The first one includs a blurry BNSF railroad bridge.


Don't worry, I have better photos, taken from the parallel, lower Spokane St. Bridge WB. As I write this, the West Seattle Bridge is in the news for unexpected concrete deterioration/spalling that has resulted in its indefinite closure and may be a very short lifespan for a bridge that opened in 1984.


From way back when it was open in 2004, here are some tiny EB photos at WA 99 and approaching I-5. West Seattle Bridge transitions straight into Columbian Way.


A larger photo, and the last blurry one, looking south from the West Seattle Bridge over the Duwamish Waterway and the raised span of the 1911 National Pacific bridge, refurbished in 1928 to change the type of counterweight mechanism and now part of the BNSF system.


Here are some WB photos from the bridge, whose signs may never have been replaced in its lifetime. I left enough in the 3rd photo to make up for what's obscured in the 4th; all of these were taken from Spokane St.


Fauntleroy Way NB at Avalon Way. The bridge begins ahead, so this is basically "any traffic not heading to these routes, get out now and head toward Spokane St." With terrible kerning between shields, words, and border.


Head toward Spokane St. as directed and find these signs, left and right on the same gantry, where Spokane St. meets the north ends of Delridge Way and Marginal Way in a 3-level interchange/intersection frenzy.


Marginal Way NB entering that complex has these other 1984 originals to add to the mix. The left is a swooping curve back around to the EB bridge.


I think I saved the best for last. Continue west from the "tangle" on Spokane St. WB and you will find yourself under the West Seattle Bridge out to the Admiral Way/Harbor Ave./Avalon Way intersection. (You may remember the latter name from a previous caption.) And there you will find the only button copy I believe exists in these environs.

Onto WA 99
Onto I-5
Onto Columbian Way
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