Seattle's new Ballard Bridge opens in May 1940.

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In May 1940, Seattle's new Ballard Bridge opens. It crosses Salmon Bay and the Lake Washington Ship Canal at 15th Avenue NW. Ballard citizens had agitated long and hard for this bridge before it was finally built.

In Passport to Ballard Sue Cook writes:

"The Ballard Commercial and Sunset Hill Community clubs had worked for some time to get approval on a bond issue to finance construction of a new bridge. Their efforts had failed in the past, despite the fact that the existing bridge was increasingly unsafe and obsolete. This campaign, too, was hotly waged in the newspapers with charges that if the City Council members lived on the Ballard side of the span, action would have been taken long ago. Low construction costs during the Depression worked to Ballard's benefit, allowing them to finally obtain approval of the new bridge project."

Sources:
Susan Cook, "Fat and Lean Years -- 1920's-1940's" in Passport to Ballard: The Centennial Story ed. by Kay Reinartz (Seattle: Ballard News Tribune, 1988), 106, 109.

By Priscilla Long, July 18, 2001

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This essay made possible by:
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The Hon. Jan Drago
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Parade on Ballard Bridge at official opening, Seattle, June 8, 1940
Courtesy MOHAI