Look for more fun at the library this fall, including a visit with Dora the Explorer, computer classes in English and Spanish, Hispanic Heritage programs, and Spanish storytimes. Visit their table at Fiestas Patrias on the 18th!

Todos los Miercoles de 2:00pm a 4:00 pm Public Health Seattle & King County estara aqui en El Centro de Informacion y Referencias de South Park (SPIARC) para ayudarlos a solicitar los beneficios Medicos y el programa de alimentos basico (cupon medico y estampillas de comida)
Please tell your neighbors who may not be on the email listserv or have web access

HistoryLink.org Essay 9471 : Printer-Friendly Format

On September 3, 1915, the first South Park Bridge, a wooden truss swing bridge spanning the Duwamish River (called Commercial Waterway No. 1), opens. The bridge enables residents of the Seattle neighborhood South Park, located on the west bank of the river, to cross over to the east side where lies most of the rest of Seattle. The bridge, known as the 14th Avenue South Bridge or Bridge 982A, is owned by King County. It has a wooden plank deck and approaches (444 feet long and 20 feet wide) supported by cedar pile trestles. The wood swing span is 295.5 feet long and 20 feet wide. The swing span is fixed to a center pier. The bridge opens by swiveling its swing span on this center pier. When open, the span parallels the waterway, allowing tugs, log booms, and various boats to pass. The bridge is built at the same time the river is being dredged and straightened to make a commercial waterway. The structure will remain in constant use and cause bridge engineers constant trouble until 1931 when it will be replaced by a new South Park Bridge, located about 100 feet farther south.

South Park: A Seattle Neighborhood

South Park, located on the west side of the Duwamish Waterway, was originally home to Duwamish peoples and was described in 1853 by an early European observer as a “bottom land, covered with white maples, cottonwood, alder and crabapple…” At the time the river meandered in big oxbows. Farmers settled the area and industrial development tended to occur in Georgetown, located farther north (closer to downtown Seattle) and on the eastern bank of the river. South Park remained bucolic and idyllic. The town of South Park was platted in 1889. By the turn of the century Italian and Japanese farmers cultivated much of the land. After 1907 they sold their produce at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. A renowned South Park farmer was Giuseppi “Joe” Desimone (1881-1946) who began acquiring property at Pike Place and by 1941, owned the Pike Market Company.

On July 8, 1905, South Park voted to be a city of the fourth-class. S. J. Bevan was the first mayor. The all-male electorate voted to annex to the city of Seattle on March 24, 1907, 186 to 36. South Park’s population was 1,500 and the largest employer was Newell’s Mill. There was an ever increasing need for neighborhood residents to get across the river.

From River to Commercial Waterway

A major transformation was visited upon the neighborhood in 1913 when the straightening out of the Duwamish River began. This work was in progress on August 7, 1914, when the King County Board of Commissioners resolved to get permission from the United States government (via the War Department) to build the bridge. This permission was obligatory since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the dredging and rechanneling of the river. The War Department granted permission on October 21, 1914.

The process of drafting plans and building the bridge began. The bridge was virtually identical in overall design to the Riverton Bridge, built upriver in 1903. The county bridge engineer responsible was Charles D. Cally. The bridge was built by the Manhattan Contracting Co., which began work on March 8, 1915.

To Build a Timber Bridge

The various memos circulating from contractor to bridge engineer to county commissioners shed light on the materials and procedures of building the bridge. A hole had to be dug for the center pier and 1,100 cubic yards of earth were removed from the center pier hole. Live (meaning just cut and not seasoned) yellow or red fir lumber was brought in to build the temporary scaffolding and falseworks from which the actual bridge would be built.

Piles were made from cedar logs and were sent to the Colman Creosoting Works to be creosoted. Cast iron spikes and bolts were ordered as well as cedar logs for the bulkhead, tie and anchor logs, and pipe rail.

Planking had to be installed for the wooden deck. The “turning machinery” was oiled and the bridge was painted with Rainier Outside White purchased from the C. M. Buck Hardware and with No. 9 Red Oxide paint (made of red oxide pigment and boiled linseed oil) purchased from W. P. Fuller Co.

The bridge was nearly done by July 1915, but had to wait for waterway dredging to be completed before the finishing touches could be accomplished.

Troubles with Trestles and Trusses

James Agnew was the first bridge tender. He began work on September 1, 1915. From December 1, 1915, to September 1, 1916, a period of nine months, the bridge tender swung the span 353 times or about 40 times per month. The job must have been a chilly one because the following year King County built a small house for his use.

Repairs and failures of bridge elements began within the first year. In 1923 a sidewalk was built on the west side of the bridge and the deck planking was replaced. The years 1923 and 1925 saw a series of episodes in which tugs handling log booms failed to clear the piers and broke or carried away piles. In 1926 an automobile drove through the railing. All of this had to be repaired.

By 1927 bridge inspector T. P. Blum reported that the wood swing span was worn and rotten and that the top chord of the truss had failed. He also noted that the cedar trestles that supported the approaches were worn and rotten. He reported that the sidewalk was too narrow and when two trucks passed there was no room for a pedestrian:

“A number of school children pass this way every day; this walk affords them a dangerous passage. Before the time that a new bridge can be built this present bridge will have to be repaired so as to make it safe. It is recommended that this bridge be repaired immediately” (T. P. Blum, Inspection report for “Bridge No. 982 A”).

A New Bridge for South Park

Inspections, troubles, and repairs continued until King County built a new bascule bridge, commonly known as the South Park Bridge. The first South Park Bridge, which came to be known as the Old Timber Bridge, stayed in service until the new bascule bridge opened.

On October 10, 1931, King County engineer Thomas Hunt wrote to the King County Board of Commissioners to report that the Mason Construction & Engineering Co. had finished removing the 14th Avenue South Bridge, also known as “Old Timber Structure.”

South Park Arts is turning the 800 block of S. Thistle St. into a mini-golf course!

9 or 10 holes designed by South Park or Seattle artists, set right in the parking strips along the street. And there’s some serious creativity going on here. Expect Barbies, chickens, catapults and the like.

This is the place to celebrate Night Out Against Crime with your South Park peeps. Live music and FREE food at the Community Center too.

South Park Putts Out

Tues, Aug 3^rd 6 – 8:30 pm

South Park Community Center/800 block of Thistle St.

July 23 event will celebrate completed project Fight the Fear Campaign, Seattle Storm, the Seattle Police Foundation, the South Park Plumb, Level & Square Foundation, and Seattle Parks and Recreation have rallied together to create new basketball courts at the South Park Community Center.

A goal of the South Park Action Agenda, these courts fulfill a recreational need in South Park and illustrate how a public-private partnership can work to create a better community for our youth.

The community is invited to celebrate on July 23, 2010 from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at the South Park Community Center. The neighborhood is encouraged to check out the basketball courts and restored tennis court, participate in the official “first basket,” and enjoy some refreshments provided by the South Park Community Center. Storm members Le’Coe Willingham and Abby Bishop, along with Adia Barnes from the 2004 championship team, will run a basketball clinic for South Park youth from 5:45 – 6:45.

This project honors the life of Teresa Butz, who was tragically murdered in July of 2009. It illustrates the determination of community members to help South Park heal. Fight the Fear Campaign was formed after Butz’s death and provided $5,000 seed money for the project.

South Park Plumb, Level & Square Foundation substantially contributed to the project with additional funding provided by the Seattle Storm, and the Seattle Police Foundation. Kim Bogucki, Seattle Police Department Community Outreach Liaison, and Carmen Martinez, Seattle Parks Recreation Specialist, provided the leadership to move this project forward.

Seattle Parks and Recreation is grateful for the efforts of all involved whose commitment and work made this project a reality.

For additional information, please contact Carmen Martinez at carmen.martinez@seattle.gov or 206-684-7451.

The park is finally underway.  We received the remaining funding in 2008 ($90,000 from Department of Neighborhoods) and were in a permitting tangle for the better part of ’09.  The overly wet spring kept us from moving any dirt on site until just recently.  During the permitting lapse, Grindline’s work load diminished, as did their cashflow, requiring them to charge cost for the labor to build the park rather than donate the whole thing as originally planned.  We had only raised funds to build a park that would receive labor gratis, so Grindline went back to the board and designed what I think is the best option for South Park.

What was once a ‘deep bowl, hardcore paradise’ is now (on the surface) a mellow street plaza park suited for beginners and families (70 – 90% of the skateboarding poulation).  Grindline is one of the best skatepark designers, so the park is not lessened by any degree with this revision - buried within the design of the street plaza is a dream snake run that will have more advanced skaters flowing through the park when it isn’t crowded.

Grindline has still donated over $80,000 in time to the project, designing the park (multiple times) for free, slogging through permitting, and calling in every favor they can for discounted and donated labor and materials.  We could not have built this park without them.

We are about 6 weeks from concrete completion, with a month or so of site cleanup, and then opening – so let’s say mid September to be safe.  We haven’t determined when we will have the big blowout dedication party, but we will certainly want to have a community throwdown / ribbon cutting as soon as the park is skateable.

If folks want to offer the Grindline folks support in the form of water, snacks, high fives or PBR, they are more than welcome to.

For more information, check out the South Seattle Artisan Wineries website. (Winery locations after the jump.)

:Nota Bene Cellars
9320 15th Avenue S, Unit CC 
206-459-2785

Cadence Winery
9320 15th Avenue S, Unit CF  
206-381-9507

O•S Winery
1501 S 92nd Place, Suite B  
206-243-3427

King 5

Wake held for South Park Bridge closure

More after the jump.

South Park Bridge closure causing major backups on Hwy. 99

Q13 Fox

South Park Bridge Now Closed For Good

KOMO

Seattle’s South Park bridge closed for good

End of the road for South Park Bridge

Reminder: South Park Bridge closes tonight with celebrations

How will you get around South Park tomorrow?

Kiro 7

South Park Bridge Permanently Closes

Community Says Goodbye To South Park Bridge With Wake

Seattle Times

South Park Bridge Closure

A final farewell to the South Park Bridge (photo gallery)

Crowds bid goodbye to the South Park Bridge

Seattle Weekly

South Park Bridge’s Final Night

The South Park Bridge’s Last Cup of Coffee

KPLU

Thousands Gather for “Wake” at South Park Bridge

KUOW

South Park Bridge Closure Audio Postcard

The Siren Song Of The South Park Bridge

Seattle PI

Photos | The South Park Brige 2010

VIDEO: South Park’s main thoroughfare becomes a dead end

B-Town Blog

Rest In Peace South Park Bridge (1931-2010)

West Seattle Herald

SLIDESHOW: South Park Bridge “wake” pumps life into neighborhood on closing day

West Seattle Blog

Updates: Crowd comes to bid South Park Bridge farewell

South Park Bridge farewell, report #2: Video moments

South Park Bridge farewell, report #3: More photos

South Park Bridge, report #4: Closing-night sights, and what’s next

Taking photos of the bagpipers at the bridge wake

Last night’s wake was amazing. Meeting new neighbors and watching the dancers, musicians, and artists transform the bridge and the community was really special. We hope we can all use this energy to keep SP and our businesses strong until we get our new bridge.

It seemed everyone was taking tons and tons of photos last night — make sure you share them! There are two Flickr groups and several Facebook pages where you can put them. We highly encourage people to sign up for Flickr to share their South Park photos — we’ve linked to them on the AllAboutSouthPark site and have a great slideshow of the South Park photos there . It’s really easy if you already have a Yahoo ID. Join the group and then you can choose which photos to add to the “pool” for others to see.

South Park Seattle Flickr Pool

South Park Arts Flickr Pool (for photos of the muralists and pallet decoration)

On Facebook:

South Park Bridge fan page

South Park Arts fan page

South Park Information and Resource Center fan page

Thanks for making last night’s sad event a positive, community-building one. If you have any feedback on the AllAboutSouthPark website, please let Lora Suggs know at spiarc@comcast.net. We’d like it to be a true resource for South Park.