The world’s newest and longest floating bridge opened its arms to the public Saturday morning, April 2, as Gov. Jay Inslee cut an orange ribbon to commemorate the completion of the new State Route 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington.
The official ribbon-cutting at the bridge’s midspan was just one of many Grand Opening activities during a daylong celebration expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors onto the 1.5-mile-long structure.
“A bridge is a monument to optimism,” Inslee said. “It’s the ultimate expression of confidence in ourselves and in our communities. Today, we’re taking a big step toward that bright future.”
The new, six-lane bridge opens to vehicles, in two stages, later this month. The recent opening is all about foot traffic. The Grand Opening lets participants stroll across a car-free bridge while enjoying interactive exhibits, displays of bridge components, a LEGO play area for amateur bridge building, “passport”-stamping stations, food-truck offerings, and great views from the middle of the lake.
“This is what it’s all about – seeing years of public engagement, planning, design and construction all come to fruition,” said Roger Millar, acting secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation. “This grand bridge is going to serve our region well for a long long time.”
During this morning’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Michael Empric, a representative of Guinness World Records, presented Millar with a certificate designating the new floating bridge – at 7,708.494 feet, end to end – as the world’s longest. The ceremony opened with a tribal blessing of the bridge by Muckleshoot Tribal Councilman Louie Ungaro, and closed with a tribal song by Eileen Richardson, Latasha Moses Gonzales, Mary Ross, Eric Pacheco and Elizabeth Ocampo of the Muckleshoot Language Group.
Earlier in the day, more than 12,000 people participated in a 10K run/walk from Husky Stadium, across the bridge, and back to the stadium. On Sunday, April 3, 7,000 bicyclists will close the celebration with a 20-mile “Emerald City Bike Ride” across the bridge and through car-free downtown Seattle streets. More than 50 corporations and organizations, including Delta Air Lines and Microsoft, helped sponsor the weekend celebration.
From his first day in office, Inslee worked to secure full funding for the SR 520 corridor, and last July he signed into law the project’s final installment of $1.6 billion, which will complete the highway’s Seattle improvements from Lake Washington to I-5. This funding was part of a balanced and multimodal transportation investment package that fixes hundreds of bridges, funds thousands of miles of roadway, and authorizes Sound Transit to expand light rail north to Everett, south to Tacoma, east to Redmond, and within Seattle between Ballard and West Seattle.
The “Connecting Washington” package will increase safety, create 200,000 jobs and provide traffic relief. All told, it is the largest and greenest transportation investment in state history.
