The
Montlake Cut was constructed at a narrow isthmus that had been used as an east–west
portage by indigenous
Coast Salish people; its name in
Lushootseed is
stəx̌ʷugʷił ("carry a canoe"). Plans for a canal to connect
Lake Union and
Lake Washington emerged as early as the 1860s with the isthmus chosen as the most practical site. A north–south road across the portage was constructed in 1879, while a narrow canal was excavated perpendicular to it. A bridge was constructed over the canal and its set of locks; a larger replacement was later proposed to carry
streetcars to the
University of Washington campus on the north side in time for the
Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition in 1909. A temporary structure was built for the exposition and replaced with a
suspension bridge for foot traffic in 1910 as construction on the wider and deeper Montlake Cut began.
Piers and
abutments for a permanent bridge were built in 1914 as part of construction for the Ship Canal, but a serious proposal for a bridge at Montlake didn't come until 1916. The first bridge in its place was a makeshift walkway made from a series of
barges, set up by graduate manager
Dar Meisnest to allow
football fans to cross for the Washington/
Dartmouth game in 1920. The temporary bridge was so heavily traveled, it demonstrated the need for a permanent structure, which was finished in June 1925. The permanent bridge was opened on June 27, 1925, a month ahead of schedule and as the centerpiece for a local parade that drew thousands of residents. The bridge was constructed by the city of Seattle at a cost of $670,000. The steel was fabricated and erected by the Wallace Equipment Company. A. Munster, acting bridge engineer of the City of Seattle supervised the construction, J. D. Blackwell was city engineer and D. W. McMorris was assistant engineer. From 1940 to 1970 and again since 1981,
trolleybuses of the
Seattle trolleybus system have used the bridge. Since 1984 (with the closure of the 1911
Cambie Street Bridge in
Vancouver, Canada), the Montlake Bridge and the nearby
University Bridge have been the only
movable bridges in the
Western Hemisphere still crossed by trolleybuses. A report from 1993 states that the Montlake Bridge averaged a volume of 60,900 vehicles each weekday, while another report from 2001 puts normal weekend traffic across the bridge at about 40,000 vehicles each day. Most of the openings are for
sailboats, as most of the
tugs that operate this far east are able to pass under the bridge in its closed position. The bridge creates a bottleneck for traffic heading to and from
State Route 520 (SR-520), and the creation of alternate routes has been proposed multiple times over the years. Traffic can become backed up for more than a mile when the bridge is open, as can be seen in aerial photographs. Plans to replace SR-520 include adding a second bascule bridge across the Montlake Cut next to the current Montlake Bridge.
Landmark designations The Montlake Bridge is celebrated as the site of boating season's "opening day" festivities the first Saturday in May. The bridge and the
Montlake Cut together are a
City of Seattle Designated Landmark (ID 107995), and the bridge was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1982, as well as the
Washington Heritage Register. It is owned and operated by the
Washington State Department of Transportation. ==Navigation==