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75th anniversary for two famous Washington bridges

75th anniversary for two famous Washington bridges

  Construction of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which opened in July 1940. (Photos courtesy of Washington State Archives) This is Washington’s tale of two bridges. Opening just one day apart in July 1940, 75 years ago, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the Lake Washington Floating Bridge both galvanized human movement and economic prosperity in Washington state. They foreshadowed the developing prowess of Washington. However, this growth was not without its pains. Both bridges were engineering marvels. The Tacoma Narrows…

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The Northwestern Industrial Army and the Battle at Sprague

The Northwestern Industrial Army and the Battle at Sprague

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: In the midst of one of the worst economic depressions of the 19th century, thousands of unemployed workers were called upon nationwide to march in protest at Washington D.C. in 1894. They gained the nickname “Coxey’s Army” after their Ohio-based leader, Jacob Coxey. The Coxeyites in the Pacific Northwest were among the most radical followers, and dubbed themselves the Northwest Industrial Army. If you consider…

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Coffee-O the Alchemist

Coffee-O the Alchemist

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: The random reel for this week contained the following article from the Dec. 17, 1920 issue of the South Bend Journal:  “COFFEE-O”, ONCE A RESIDENT, RETURNS AGAIN TO SOUTH BEND  Had Troubled Career — Is Sure He Can Make Gold — Fears Government Will Stop Him — Has Improved His Coffee Substitute.  “After over two years absence Albert Cornell, better known as ‘Coffee-O’ after a…

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Tax the Unmarried, Pay for Social Security

Tax the Unmarried, Pay for Social Security

From the pages of the Tacoma Times, Sept. 30, 1910. In September of 1910, officials from the Finance Ministry in Paris were scrambling to come up with ways to pay for the French Old Age Pensions bill, a compulsary insurance plan similar to social security.  The Minister of Finance, M. Cochery, asked clerks to come up with ideas and was bombarded with suggestions, some ideas were “decidedly original” and some that were “highly impracticle.” Among the proposed subjects of taxation: “Bachelors and old maids;…

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State Library Contributes 23 Newspaper Titles to Chronicling America

State Library Contributes 23 Newspaper Titles to Chronicling America

The Washington State Library recently contributed another 23,000 historic newspaper pages from seven newspapers to Chronicling America, making Washington State’s contribution to the program a total of 23 titles and over 115,000 pages. Read and research issues from these and other newspapers around the U.S. for free at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.  There are now 23 newspapers from Washington State currently included in Chronicling America:   Cayton’s Monthly, 1921 Cayton’s Weekly, 1917-1921 Colfax Gazette, 1900-1912   Colville Examiner, 1907-1922 Commonwealth (Everett), 1911-1914 Co-operative News, 1917-1921 Daily Republican (Seattle),…

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Washington Adds 50,000 Newspaper Pages to Chronicling America

Washington Adds 50,000 Newspaper Pages to Chronicling America

The Washington State Library recently contributed another 50,000 historic newspaper pages from nine newspapers to Chronicling America, making Washington State’s contribution to the program a total of 16 titles and 92,000 pages. People can read and research issues from these and other newspapers around the U.S. for free at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. There are now 16 newspapers from Washington State currently included in Chronicling America: Cayton’s Weekly, 1917-1921 Colfax Gazette, 1900-1912 Colville Examiner, 1907-1922 Commonwealth (Everett), 1911-1914 Daily Republican (Seattle), 1896 Leavenworth…

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Voter turnout is tops at First Creek Middle School

Voter turnout is tops at First Creek Middle School

Way to go First Creek Middle School in Tacoma! Students at this school will be recognized by Secretary Reed at their Veterans’ Day assembly on Nov. 10 for the most student ballots cast of any school participating in our Mock Election.  In all, the First Creek students cast 544 ballots. Nice! More than 5,300 students grades K-12 participated in the Mock Election, a non-partisan educational exercise that promotes civic awareness in classrooms. Students from schools throughout the state voted online…

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Newspapers in the Library

Newspapers in the Library

I recently did a post on the loss of the “Spokesman Review”, however, I am happy to report that we still have many newspapers in the library to provide a touch of home for our patrons. As newspapers can be very expensive we cannot purchase all of them that are published in Washington, but we do our best. To that end we carry the larger metropolitan areas (excluding Spokane). This includes Olympia, Seattle, Yakima, Tri-Cities, Everett, Tacoma, Wenatchee, Vancouver, and…

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Back to work after “Galloping Gertie” collapsed…

Back to work after “Galloping Gertie” collapsed…

Those who have traveled across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge for years had a close-up view of the construction of the new Narrows Bridge for Highway 16’s eastbound traffic. But not many people were around when work began to build a new span after the original bridge (nicknamed “Galloping Gertie”) collapsed during a wind storm on November 7, 1940, just four months after opening. This photo shows a worker walking atop one of the bridge cables on November 16, 1940, just a week after…

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