The first Lauttasaari bridge was built in 1935. At the same time, the Jorvaksentie road leading west of Lauttasaari, predecessor of the
Länsiväylä highway, was built. Before the bridge there had been a
ferry at the same time since 1914. The octagonal building
Mutterikioski building was built to serve the ferry passengers. The building currently servers as a
café. The ferry connection is also related to the island's name, as
Lauttasaari means "ferry island" in Finnish. As the population of Lauttasaari grew in the 1950s with further construction and new residential districts such as
Tapiola were built in southern
Espoo, the old bridge soon became too narrow. Large
traffic jams appeared on both sides of the bridge. The situation eased significantly when the
Lapinlahti bridge, part of Länsiväylä, was built north of the bridge in 1965. The old Lauttasaari bridge was dismantled in the winter from 1967 to 1968 and construction of the new bridge started soon afterwards. It was completed in late December 1969. There was a temporary wooden pedestrian bridge to the north of the bridge during its construction. ==References==