The present bridge is actually the third bridge at this location. A low trestle bridge was built in 1890 or 1891. In 1911, in anticipation of the construction of the Ship Canal, it was replaced by a higher trestle bridge. While that bridge was always intended as temporary, it proved even more so than planned, because early in the afternoon of March 12, 1914, the Fremont dam, which controlled the level of Lake Union, gave way. Over the course of a day, the lake level lowered by nine feet, stranding vessels and floating homes, and rupturing the central portion of the second Fremont bridge. The
Stone Avenue Bridge, which included a streetcar trestle from Westlake Avenue to Stone Way, remained intact. Streetcar traffic that had used the Fremont Bridge was rerouted over that trestle until the completion of the present-day bridge., July 4, 1917 ==References==