Snake River Bridge

Infobox Bridge
bridge_name=Snake River Bridge


caption=
official_name=
carries=Passenger vehicles
crosses=Snake River
locale=near Starbuck, Washington
maint=
id=
design=Cantilever bridge
mainspan=
length=2040 ft (618 m)
width=
height=
load=
clearance=
below=
traffic=
begin=1926
complete=1927
open=1968 (at current location)
closed=
toll=
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coordinates=Coord|46|35|22.88|N|118|13|9.89|W|region:US_type:landmark|display=inline,titleThe Snake River Bridge (also known as the Lyons Ferry Bridge), located on State Route 261 at the confluence of the Snake and Palouse Rivers, near Starbuck, Washington, USA, is the oldest extant steel cantilever bridge in Washington. [cite web | url=http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/CulRes/bridges.htm | title=Historic Bridges | publisher=Washington State Department of Transportation | accessdate=2007-08-10] The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (reference number 82004207)cite web | url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/ | title=National Register Information System | date=2006-03-15 | work=National Register of Historic Places | publisher=National Park Service] and is located next to Lyons Ferry State Park.

Original construction

It was originally constructed in 1927 and known as the Vantage Ferry Bridge, where it carried the North Central Highway over the Columbia River in Vantage, replacing a four-car ferry. By 1923, the ferry was transporting 50,000 people across the river annually,cite web | url=http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.wa0429 | title=Snake River Bridge at Lyons' Ferry, State Route 261 spanning Snake River, Starbuck vicinity, Columbia County, WA | work=Historic American Engineering Record | publisher=National Park Service | accessdate=2007-08-10] and it was clear that a bridge was needed to replace it. Originally planned to be a privately constructed toll bridge, it was strongly opposed by Washington Governor Louis F. Hart because it would be a toll bridge on a taxpayer-supported highway. Not only that, but the state also stood to lose $900,000 in federal funds for the North Central Highway if a toll bridge were to be built. Instead, the state approved funding for its own bridge.

However, the construction of the Wanapum Dam downriver of the bridge in the 1960s flooded the town of Vantage, and state officials decided to replace the existing two-lane bridge, which had become unsafe for high volume traffic, with a new four-lane bridge. The old bridge was dismantled and put into storage.cite web | url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5638 | title=Washington rebuilds an historic steel cantilever bridge as the Lyons Ferry Bridge across the Snake River in 1968. | publisher=HistoryLink | first=Priscilla | last=Long | date=January 17, 2004 | accessdate=2007-08-10]

Meanwhile, at Lyons Ferry, crossings of the Snake River were done by ferry, but the construction of the Lower Monumental Dam caused the river to slow, thus increasing crossing time. State officials then decided to reconstruct this bridge at that location.

See also

* Vantage Bridge

References