(Photo courtesy of Washington State Archives)

As Blood, Sweat & Tears sang in its 1969 classic “Spinning Wheel,” what comes up must come down.

That’s the case for the south mile of the Alaskan Way Viaduct along the Seattle waterfront, as crews began tearing it down recently. The project to replace the viaduct with a tunnel is slated to begin late this year and is supposed to be completed in late 2015.

For those of you wondering what it looked like when this section of the viaduct was going up, look no further. Our State Archives unearthed this photo (above) from its state Department of Transportation photo collection that shows the viaduct being built in 1957. Note how the Smith Tower dominated the Seattle skyline back then.

The photo below is from WSDOT’s collection of the south mile’s demolition.

(Photo courtesy Washington State Department of Transportation)