Washington State Route 409

SR 409 goes on a {{convert|3.84|mi|km|2}} route north from the northern ferry dock of the Wahkiakum County Ferry on Puget Island, to SR 4, also referred to as the Ocean Beach Highway, in the county seat of Cathlamet. The route connects Westport, Oregon, which is served by the county ferry, and Cathlamet.{{google maps |url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/46.1540249,-123.3777169/46.2047608,-123.3821217/@46.1800745,-123.4162822,13z/am=t/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!4m1!3e0 |title=State Route 409 Map |access-date=November 20, 2015}}{{cite map |publisher=Rand McNally |title=The Road Atlas |year=2008 |page=108 |isbn=0-528-93961-0}} The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) found in 2007 that, on average, more than 2,800 motorists utilize the road daily south of the northern terminus in Cathlamet, making the highway the second busiest state route in the county, after SR 4 at Boege Road, which more than 4,100 motorists utilize daily.{{cite web|url=http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/mapsdata/tdo/PDF_and_ZIP_Files/Annual_Traffic_Report_2007.pdf |title=Washington Annual Average Daily Traffic Data |author=Washington State Department of Transportation |year=2007 |access-date=November 9, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326014935/http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/mapsdata/tdo/PDF_and_ZIP_Files/Annual_Traffic_Report_2007.pdf |archive-date=March 26, 2009 }}

File:Puget Island.jpg towards the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge and Cathlamet.]]

SR 409 originates at the ferry dock on Puget Island which serves as the northern end of the Wahkiakum County Ferry. From the dock, the road travels north past the island's interior, before turning northwest to parallel the Cathlamet Channel. After intersecting Little Island Road, the highway immediately turns onto the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge spanning over the Cathlamet Channel. Once SR 409 exits off the bridge in Cathlamet, it becomes Front Street. Later, after intersecting River Street and Columbia Street, the highway becomes Main Street, the designation used from the intersection point to SR 4.{{cite map |title=Official State Highway Map |url=http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/87105CAD-83A9-49A7-80F3-5719637C1E2D/0/FrontMapBig.pdf |publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation |location=Olympia, Washington |year=2008 |edition=2008-2009 |scale=1:842,000 |series=Official State Highway Maps |cartography=U.S. Geological Survey |section=G2 |access-date=November 9, 2008}}

{{main|Wahkiakum County Ferry}}

File:Wahkiakum County Ferry.jpg leaving the Westport, Oregon dock towards the Puget Island dock, the southern terminus of SR 409.]]

The year-round Wahkiakum County Ferry, designated Wahkiakum, runs from Westport, Oregon to the southern terminus of SR 409 at Puget Island.{{cite web |url=http://www.co.wahkiakum.wa.us/depts/pw/index.htm |title=Ferry Wahkiakum – Ride the last Ferry on the Lower Columbia River |author=Wahkiakum County Public Works |year=2005 |access-date=November 9, 2008 |author-link=Wahkiakum County, Washington |archive-date=December 1, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201072733/http://www.co.wahkiakum.wa.us/depts/pw/index.htm |url-status=dead }} The ferry connects SR 409 to a road that connects to U.S. Route 30, which runs {{convert|477.02|mi|km|2}} across Oregon;{{cite web|author=Oregon Department of Transportation |url=http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TDATA/rics/PublicRoadsInventory.shtml |title=Public Road Inventory |access-date=November 30, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080224153306/http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TDATA/rics/PublicRoadsInventory.shtml |archive-date=February 24, 2008 |author-link=Oregon Department of Transportation }} Wahkiakum County began running the ferry in 1962, on a route from Westport to Puget Island. The ferry travels more than eighteen trips per day, and runs from 5:00 am to 10:15 pm{{cite web|url=http://www.wahkiakumchamber.com/visitor_information.htm#Ferry_Schedule_ |title=Wahkiakum County Ferry Schedule |author=Wahkiakum County Chamber |access-date=November 9, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080730051850/http://www.wahkiakumchamber.com/visitor_information.htm |archive-date=July 30, 2008 |url-status=dead }} and holds up to nine vehicles.{{cite web |url=http://www.wahkiakumchamber.com/ |title=Wahkiakum County Chamber |author=Wahkiakum County Chamber |access-date=November 9, 2008}} The ferry costs 50¢ for foot passengers, $1 for bicycles, $2 for motorcycles, and $3 for passenger cars and other vehicles under {{convert|20|ft|m}}. Vehicles over {{convert|20|ft|m}} cannot travel on the ferry; motorhomes, large trucks and trailers are allowed on the ferry for a fare determined by length. Frequent Traveler Tickets can be purchased for $40 (22 trips) and $75 (44 trips) for vehicles under {{convert|20|ft|m}}. The first ferry launched in June 1925, when Walter Coates bought two ferries and began to operate them on two different routes, including the current one and a route from Puget Island to Cathlamet.{{cite web |url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8029 |title=Walter Coates began ferry service across the Columbia River via Puget Island in June 1925 |author=Kit Oldham |publisher=HistoryLink |date=December 13, 2006 |access-date=November 11, 2008}}{{cite book |last=Ruby |first=Robert H. |author2=John A. Brown |title=Ferryboats on the Columbia River, Including the Bridges and Dams |location=Seattle |publisher=Superior Publishing Co. |year=1974 |pages=18, 21–23 }} The county later replaced the Puget Island – Cathlamet route with the Puget Island – Cathlamet Bridge in 1939.{{cite book |first=Irene |last=Martin |title=Beach of Heaven: A History of Wahkiakum County |publisher=Washington State University Press |location=Pullman, Washington |year=1997 |pages=99–104 }}

{{main|Julia Butler Hansen Bridge}}

File:Puget Island Bridge.jpg southbound from Cathlamet towards Puget Island.]]

In June 1925, Walter Coates began a ferry service across the Cathlamet Channel, from Puget Island to Cathlamet. The original ferry was later replaced by the Cathlamet, which could load cars. In 1932, Coates sold the ferry service, fearing that the newly completed Ocean Beach Highway, soon to be SR 4, would press drivers to the competing Astoria–Megler Ferry. In 1939, the year the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge opened, ferry service ceased on the Puget Island – Cathlamet run.

The Julia Butler Hansen Bridge, which currently carries the route of SR 409, which will be designated in 1964, from Puget Island to Cathlamet, opened in August 1939.{{cite web |url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=8025 |title=Wahkiakum County's Julia Butler Hansen Bridge is completed in August 1939 |author=Priscilla Long |publisher=HistoryLink |date=December 6, 2006 |access-date=November 9, 2008}}{{cite book |last=Holstine |first=Craig |author2=Richard Hobbs |title=Spanning Washington: Historic Highway Bridges of the Evergreen State |url=http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?isbn=9780874222814&atch=h |access-date=November 9, 2008 |year=2005 |publisher=Washington State University Press |location=Pullman, Washington |isbn=0-87422-281-8 |pages=100–101}} The bridge, initially named the Puget Island – Cathlamet Bridge, was later renamed to honor Julia Butler Hansen, who served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1939 until 1960,{{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=h000174 |title=HANSEN, Julia Butler, (1907 - 1988) |author=United States Congress |access-date=November 9, 2008|author-link=United States Congress }}{{cite book |last=Wasniewski |first=Matthew |title=Women in Congress, 1917-2006 |url=https://archive.org/details/womenincongress100wasn |access-date=November 9, 2008 |year=2006 |publisher=United States House of Representatives, United States House Committee on House Administration, Clerk of the United States House of Representatives |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-16-076753-9 |url-access=registration }} and U.S. representative for the third congressional district from 1960 until 1974.{{cite web |title=Hansen, Julia Butler |url=https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/14500 |publisher=Historian of the United States House of Representatives |access-date=October 13, 2021}}

Lacey V. Murrow, R. W. Finke and Clark H. Eldridge designed the bridge, which spanned {{convert|2433|ft|m}} and consisted of four steel spans when first constructed. Steel comprises the majority of the truss bridge's structure. President Franklin D. Roosevelt commenced the five-day celebration of the bridge's opening with a ribbon cutting, remotely controlled from the White House via telegraph.

File:WA-SSH12-F.svg (1943–1964)]]

After a reconstruction of the Primary and Secondary Highways in 1943, the road that later became SR 409 was established as Secondary State Highway 12F (SSH 12F).{{cite book |author=Washington State Legislature |title=Session Laws of the State of Washington |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcY4AAAAIAAJ |access-date=November 9, 2008 |edition=1943 |year=1943 |publisher=Washington State Legislature |location=Olympia, Washington |chapter=Chapter 147}} SSH 12F became SR 409 in 1964 during the 1964 highway renumbering, in which the WSDOT replaced the previous system of Primary and Secondary Highways with a new system called State Routes, which is still in use today.{{cite web |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2005/04/26/Identification-of-state-highways.pdf |title=Identification of State Highways, Part 1 |author=C. G. Prahl, Washington State Highway Commission |date=December 1, 1965 |access-date=February 3, 2020 |archive-date=October 30, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030044024/http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/6836215D-E301-43F3-895A-472BD2FDE86A/0/Identification.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2005/04/26/state-route-numbers.pdf |title=Identification of State Highways, Part 2 |author=C. G. Prahl, Washington State Highway Commission |date=December 1, 1965 |access-date=February 10, 2020 |archive-date=October 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030023216/https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2005/04/26/state-route-numbers.pdf |url-status=dead }}

{{WAinttop|county=Wahkiakum|length_ref=}}

{{Jctint

|location_special=Puget Island

|mile=0.00

|road={{jct|extra=ferry}} Wahkiakum County Ferry – Westport, OR

|notes=Southern terminus}}

{{jctbridge

|location_special=Cathlamet Channel

|mile=2.99

|bridge=Julia Butler Hansen Bridge }}

{{WAint

|location=Cathlamet

|mile=3.84

|road={{jct|state=WA|SR|4|city1=Naselle|city2=Longview|city3=Kelso|name1=Ocean Beach Highway}}

|notes=Northern terminus}}

{{jctbtm}}

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|Washington State Route 409}}

{{Attached KML|display=inline,title}}

• [https://www.angelfire.com/wa2/hwysofwastate/sr409.html Highways of Washington State]
• [https://www.angelfire.com/wa2/hwysofwastate/ColRivBr02.html Wahkiakum County Ferry on Highways of Washington State]
• [https://www.angelfire.com/wa2/hwysofwastate/ColRivBr03.html Julia Butler Hansen Bridge on Highways of Washington State]

{{State highways in Washington related to SR 4}}

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409

Category:Transportation in Wahkiakum County, Washington