Raging River Bridge No.1008E

Raging River Bridge No. 1008E
Acrylic on canvas. 11" x 14".

This bridge is about a mile and a half down the road from my place. I stopped by the other day and toured around it with my camera. Ended up becoming obsessed with the bridge and had to paint it.

The bridge was completed in 1915 on was was then called the Sunset Highway, the road from Seattle over Snoqualmie Pass and all points east. It was also referred to as "the Yellowstone Trail" by early promoters in the area, although following the road east did not directly end up at Yellowstone.
Years later this two lane circuitous road to the pass was replaced by a straighter route a few miles to the south; interstate 90 in use today.

After 1940, this section of the former Sunset Highway became a local access road between two small towns. The road was straightened at some point, leaving the old bridge marooned on what became a side road which dead ends shortly after the bridge. A road and bridge to nowhere.
It doesn't look like much from the road bed, but has a very elegant early art-deco look from the side, standing below by the river.