Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge#1990 disaster

{{Short description|Floating bridge in Seattle, Washington, U.S.}}

{{Infobox Bridge

|bridge_name = Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge

|image = I-90 floating bridges looking east.JPG

|image_size = 220

|caption = The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge (right) and the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge (left) in 2005, looking east toward Mercer Island

|carries = {{jct|state=WA|I|90}} (4 eastbound lanes)

|crosses = Lake Washington

|locale = Seattle / Mercer Island, Washington, U.S.

|maint = Washington State Department of Transportation

|design = Pontoon bridge

|length = {{convert|6620|ft|abbr=on}}

|open = July 2, 1940

|rebuilt = September 12, 1993

}}

The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge is a floating bridge in the Seattle metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Washington. It is one of two floating bridges that carries Interstate 90 across Lake Washington from Seattle to Mercer Island. The Murrow Bridge carries four lanes of eastbound traffic, while westbound traffic is carried by the adjacent Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge.

The Murrow Bridge is the second-longest floating bridge in the world, at {{convert|6620|ft|abbr=on}} (the longest is the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge–Evergreen Point, a few miles north on the same lake). The original Murrow Bridge opened in 1940, and was named the Lake Washington Floating Bridge. It was renamed the Lacey V. Murrow bridge in 1967.Lange, G. (1999). Lake Washington Floating Bridge is dedicated on July 2, 1940. Washington State Department of Transportation. http://www.historylink.org/File/682 The original bridge closed in 1989;{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Lp1fAAAAIBAJ&pg=4255%2C3266955 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |agency=Associated Press |last=Costello |first=Nancy |title=Flood waters send bridge to bottom |date=November 26, 1990 |page=1A}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qGtXAAAAIBAJ&pg=5984%2C5882189 |work=Spokesman-Review |agency=Associated Press |title=Floating bridge collapses after storm hits |date=November 26, 1990 |page=A1}} the current bridge opened in 1993.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M5MyAAAAIBAJ&pg=6912%2C2787497 |work=Spokesman-Review |title=Floating bridge opens |agency=Associated Press |date=September 13, 1993 |page=A12}}

Along with the east portals of the Mount Baker Ridge Tunnel, the bridge is an official City of Seattle landmark and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.[https://www.cityofseattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/l.htm Landmarks Alphabetical Listing for L] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721035534/https://www.cityofseattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/l.htm |date=July 21, 2011 }}, Individual Landmarks, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle. Accessed December 28, 2007.{{cite magazine |last=Witcher |first=T.R. |date=September 2018 |title=Success in Seattle: The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Mount Baker Ridge Tunnel |magazine=Civil Engineering |publisher=American Society of Civil Engineers |pages=44–47}} While the bridge originally had an opening span at the center of the bridge to allow a horizontal opening of {{convert|202|ft}} for major waterborne traffic, the only boat passages currently are elevated fixed spans at the termini with {{convert|29|ft}} of vertical clearance.Tudor Engineering Company for Washington State Highway Commission Department of Highways. Legislative Reconnaissance and Feasibility Report "Lake Washington Bridge Crossings, Parallel Evergreen Point Bridge, North Lake Bridge. December 1968.

History

File:Lacey V. Murrow Bridge construction.jpg

The bridge was the brainchild of engineer Homer Hadley, who had made the first proposal in 1921.{{cite web |last=Burrows |first=Alyssa |date=January 18, 2005 |title=Homer Hadley formally proposes a concrete pontoon floating bridge across Lake Washington on October 1, 1921. |url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7212 |work=HistoryLink |access-date=September 19, 2015}} The bridge came about after intensive lobbying, particularly by George Lightfoot, who came to be called the "father of the bridge." Lightfoot began campaigning for the bridge in 1930, enlisting the support of Eastside businessman Miller Freeman.{{cite news |date=April 18, 1941 |title=G. W. Lightfoot Taken By Death |newspaper=The Seattle Times}}{{cite news |last=Reynolds |first=Peggy |date=May 24, 1989 |title=George Lightfoot's vision spanned Lake Washington |url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0EB533666D01A021?p=AMNEWS |url-access=subscription |via=NewsBank |newspaper=The Seattle Times |page=H1 |access-date=September 19, 2015}}{{cite book |last=Brahm |first=Jane Meyer |year=2013 |title=Mercer Island History: From Haunted Wilderness to Coveted Community |publisher=Island Books }} The proposed floating bridge was met with skepticism and was heavily criticized by The Seattle Times, which later issued an apology in a front-page edtiorial before it opened.{{cite web |last=Caldbick |first=John |date=September 2, 2021 |title=Lake Washington Floating Bridge (Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge) |url=https://www.historylink.org/file/21298 |work=HistoryLink |accessdate=July 7, 2025}}{{cite news |last=Reynolds |first=Peggy |date=November 26, 1990 |title='The biggest thing afloat' |page=A5 |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19901126/1106244/the-biggest-thing-afloat |work=The Seattle Times |accessdate=July 7, 2025}} Construction began on January 1, 1939, and was completed by the Washington State Toll Bridge Authority in 1940.{{cite web |last=Zylstra |first=Brian |date=January 28, 2011 |title=Building the first Lake Washington floating bridge |url=http://blogs.sos.wa.gov/FromOurCorner/index.php/2011/01/building-the-first-lake-washington-floating-bridge/ |work=From Our Corner |publisher=Washington Office of the Secretary of State |access-date=September 19, 2015}} The project was partially financed by a bond issue of $4.184 million and the total cost, including approaches, was approximately $9 million. The bridge was built under a {{frac|1|1|2}}-year contract awarded to the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company in the amount of $3.254 million.{{cite journal |last=Schmitt |first=F.E. |date=January 5, 1939 |title=Low Bidder Get Contract on Pontoon Bridge |journal=Engineering News-Record |volume=122 |issue=1 |page=5 |publisher=McGraw-Hill Publishing Company |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48ojAAAAMAAJ |via=Google Books |access-date=December 28, 2008}}

The Lake Washington Floating Bridge opened on July 2, 1940, and carried a section of the Sunset Highway, then part of US 10 (later decommissioned and replaced by Interstate 90).{{cite news |last=Anderson |first=Ross |date=August 2, 1987 |title=$40,000 a foot: Learning to live with I-90 |page=10 |work=The Seattle Times}}{{cite news |last=Banel |first=Feliks |date=November 26, 2013 |title=Looking Back: Thanksgiving Flood Sinks Old I-90 Bridge |url=https://www.kuow.org/stories/looking-back-thanksgiving-flood-sinks-old-i-90-bridge/ |publisher=KUOW |accessdate=July 7, 2025}} The existing Lake Washington ferries from Seattle to Mercer Island and Medina were both immediately discontinued, while the Seattle–Kirkland run remained in service. The Mercer Island and Medina ferries carried a total of 164,614 vehicles in 1939; a majority of traffic between Seattle and the east side of the lake was carried on other highways.{{cite report |author=Coverdale & Colpitts |date=September 6, 1940 |title=Report on Traffic and Revenues, Lake Washington Bridge |pages=7–8, 21 |url=https://cdm16977.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16977coll6/id/7937/rec/86 |publisher=Washington State Toll Bridge Authority |via=WSDOT Library Digital Collections |accessdate=July 7, 2025}} Bridge tolls of 25 cents for single-occupant automobiles, 35 cents to $2 for trucks, 10 cents for bicycles, 5 cents for pedestrians, and 35 to 50 cents for horse-drawn vehicles were collected a toll plaza on Mercer Island. The tolls were removed on July 2, 1949, after the bonds had been paid off 19 years ahead of schedule.{{cite news |last=Holt |first=Russell |date=July 3, 1949 |title=Cars Throng Lake Bridge as Tolls End |page=1 |work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer}}{{cite news |date=July 19, 1949 |title=Floating Bridge Pays For Itself |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pa0fAAAAIBAJ&pg=2091,2198919&hl=en |via=Google News Archive |agency=Newspaper Enterprise Association |newspaper=The Southeast Missourian |page=3 |access-date=May 18, 2010}}

The bridge was renamed the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge in 1967. The eponymous Lacey V. Murrow {{nowrap|(1904–1966)}} was the second director of the Washington State Highway Department and a highly decorated U.S. Air Force officer who served as a bomber pilot in World War II, rising to the rank of {{nowrap|brigadier general.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JbwzAAAAIBAJ&pg=3128%2C298060 |work=Spokane Daily Chronicle |title=Gen. Lacey Murrow found dead in hotel |date=December 17, 1966 |page=3}}{{cite news |url=https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/106105/brigadier-general-lacey-van-buren-murrow/ |publisher=United States Air Force |agency=(Biographies) |title=Brigadier General Lacey Van Buren Murrow |access-date=August 8, 2018}}{{cite news|url=http://www.historylink.org/File/7278 |work=History Link |last=Oldham |first=Kit |title=Lacey V. Murrow becomes Director of Highways on March 20, 1933 |agency=(Essay 7278) |date=March 16, 2005 |access-date=August 8, 2018}}}} {{nowrap|A 1925}} graduate of Washington State College in Pullman, he was the oldest brother of CBS commentator Edward R. Murrow.

The original bridge included a movable span that could be retracted into a pocket in the center of the fixed span to permit large boats to pass. This design resulted in a roadway bulge that required vehicles to swerve twice across polished steel joints as they passed the bulge. A reversible lane system, indicated by lighted overhead lane control signals with arrow and 'X' signs, compounded the hazard by putting one lane of traffic on the "wrong" side of the bulge during morning and evening rush hours in an effort to alleviate traffic into or out of Seattle. There were many serious collisions on the bridge. The problems grew worse as the traffic load increased over the years and far outstripped the designed capacity.

Renovation or replacement became essential and a parallel bridge, the Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, was completed in 1989, and named for Hadley in 1993.{{cn|date=July 2025}} With the opening of the new bridge, the 49-year-old Murrow Bridge closed on June 23, 1989, for renovation that was projected to take three years.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DmxXAAAAIBAJ&pg=2277%2C40057 |work=Spokesman-Review |agency=Associated Press |title=Contractor on old bridge goes after big projects |date=December 1, 1990 |page=A8}}{{cite news |last=Gough |first=William |date=June 22, 1989 |title=That'll be one bridge – to go – The old I-90 closes tomorrow|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0EB53370D87BFC49?p=AMNEWS|newspaper=The Seattle Times |page=A1 |access-date=May 16, 2018 |via=NewsBank |url-access=registration }}{{cite news |author= |date=June 23, 1989 |title=Eastbound I-90 lanes to close over weekend in shift to new bridge|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0EB0492B6716847B?p=AMNEWS|newspaper=The Seattle Post-Intelligencer |page=B1 |access-date=May 15, 2018 |via=NewsBank |url-access=registration }} The bridge sank in a storm on November 25, 1990, during refurbishment and repair. There were no fatalities or injuries.{{cite news |date=November 26, 1990 |title=Pontoon Bridge Sinks in Flooding As Seattle Is Battered by Storms |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/26/us/pontoon-bridge-sinks-in-flooding-as-seattle-is-battered-by-storms.html |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=September 19, 2015}}

1990 disaster

File:Murrow Memorial Bridge 07747.JPG]]

On November 25, 1990, while under re-construction, the original bridge sank because of a series of human errors and decisions. The process started because the bridge needed resurfacing and was to be widened by means of cantilevered additions in order to meet the necessary lane-width specifications of the Interstate Highway System. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) decided to use hydrodemolition (high-pressure water) to remove unwanted material (the sidewalks on the bridge deck). Water from this hydrodemolition was considered contaminated under environmental law and could not be allowed to flow into Lake Washington.Donald O. Dusenberry, et al. (Feb. 1995). "Failure of Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge, Seattle, Washington." Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, v. 9, n. 1, p 4-23. Engineers then analyzed the pontoons of the bridge, and realized that they were over-engineered and the water could be stored temporarily in the pontoons. The watertight doors for the pontoons were therefore removed.

A large storm on November 22–24 (the Thanksgiving holiday weekend),{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Lp1fAAAAIBAJ&pg=4313%2C3310099 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |agency=Associated Press |last=Cabrera |first=Luis |title=Record rains create chaos in parts of western Washington |date=November 26, 1990 |page=6A}} filled some of the pontoons with rain and lake water. On Saturday, November 24, workers noticed that the bridge was about to sink, and started pumping out some of the pontoons; on Sunday, November 25, a {{convert|2790|ft|adj=on}} section of the bridge sank, dumping the contaminated water into the lake along with tons of bridge material. It sank when one pontoon filled and dragged the rest down, because they were cabled together and there was no way to separate the sections under load. No one was hurt or killed, since the bridge was closed for renovation and the sinking took {{nowrap|some time.}} All of the sinking was captured on film and shown on live TV. The cost of the disaster was $69 million in damages. A dozen anchoring cables for the new Hadley bridge were {{nowrap|severed,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=whhXAAAAIBAJ&pg=6019%2C4443540 |work=Spokane Chronicle |agency=Associated Press |title=I-90 bridge opened and shut and... |date=November 29, 1990 |page=A1}}}} and it was closed for a short time afterward.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qWtXAAAAIBAJ&pg=3152%2C6126370|work=Spokesman-Review |agency=Associated Press |last=Costello |first=Nancy |title=Surviving I-90 bridge still at mercy of wind |date=November 27, 1990 |page=A1}} Westbound traffic was allowed {{nowrap|on Tuesday,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qmtXAAAAIBAJ&pg=5013%2C6800158 |work=Spokesman-Review |agency=Associated Press |title=Crews rush to anchor I-90 bridge |date=November 28, 1990 |page=B1}}}} and eastbound traffic was resumed in early December.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=erkSAAAAIBAJ&pg=1996%2C41340 |work=Spokane Chronicle |last=Rosenwald |first=Lonnie |title=Bridge still creates splash |date=December 3, 1990 |page=A6}}

The disaster delayed the bridge's reopening by 14 months, to September 12, 1993.{{cite news|last=Reynolds|first=Peggy|date=September 9, 1993|title=Last link of I-90 ends 30-year saga|page=A10|newspaper=The Seattle Times|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19930909&slug=1720198|url-status=bot: unknown|access-date=November 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005014301/https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19930909&slug=1720198|archive-date=October 5, 2021|via=NewsBank}}

=Precedents and lessons learned=

WSDOT had lost another floating bridge, the Hood Canal Bridge, in February 1979 under similar circumstances. It is now known that the other major floating bridge in Washington, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, was under-engineered for local environmental conditions; that 1963 bridge was replaced with a new floating span {{nowrap|in 2016.{{cite web |title=SR 520 - Floating Bridge and Landings Project |url=http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520Bridge/BridgeAndLandings/Default.htm |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |access-date=September 19, 2015 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016075628/http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520Bridge/BridgeAndLandings/Default.htm |url-status=dead }}}}

Notes

External links

{{Structurae|id=20003703|title=Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge}}
[http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/bridges/i90/default.aspx Bridge Camera, includes some weather information]
{{HAER |survey=WA-2 |id=wa0182 |title=Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Floating Bridge |photos=7 |data=20 |cap=1}}
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm0YQ3vuyyY King-5 television video of the sinking]

{{Coord|47.58988|-122.27031|format=dms|region:US_type:landmark_scale:25000|display=title}}

Category:Bridge disasters in the United States

Category:Bridge disasters caused by construction error

Category:Bridges in Seattle

Category:Bridges in King County, Washington

Category:Bridges completed in 1993

Category:Bridges completed in 1940

Category:Interstate 90

Category:Landmarks in Seattle

Category:Monuments and memorials in Washington (state)

Category:Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks

Category:Road bridges in Washington (state)