Washington State Department of Transportation

Archives Spotlight: Ride through Highway 99’s past and future via the State Archives

January 17, 2019 Secretary of State's Office

The last car to travel the Alaskan Way Viaduct cruised into a cold, dry Seattle night around 10 p.m. Friday, January 11, 2019. The two-level stretch of State Route 99 along coastal downtown has been an element of the city’s skyline since the early 1950s, but safety concerns have hastened its departure. The viaduct was damaged by the Nisqually earthquake in 2001, and has been deemed susceptible to future damage should another earthquake rock the structure. A tunnel under downtown…

July Archives treasure #1: N. Cascades Highway documents

July 9, 2012 Secretary of State's Office

(A 1921 photo of the Cascade wagon road near Marblemount. Part of the WSDOT Photo Collection. Photo courtesy of Washington State Archives.) Sure, a drive over Stevens Pass or Snoqualmie Pass is very scenic, but you really haven’t experienced the Cascade Range in all of its majestic glory until you’ve traveled on the North Cascades Highway. Part of State Route 20, this highway opened in September 1972, nearly 80 years after the Washington Legislature first hatched the idea for a…

When the viaduct was being built

October 27, 2011 Secretary of State's Office

(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…

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