Driving On I-90 East in 1983 (Seattle, Bellevue, Issaquah, North Bend)

Back in 1983, The Washington State Department of Transportation drove East on I-90 and recorded video to document the highway. This was part of a project that photographed/videotaped the states highways every couple of years. This video now resides at The Washington State Archives who were kind enough to share it.

[@Poopmummy]

Please keep posting these videos! I love them. It is a window into my childhood. I was 13 in 1983 and remember all these landmarks and old businesses. Thank you!

[@Jaguarmaserati]

16:05, Chevy Van with a "The Vapors" wheel cover for the spare tire. I am listening to new wave music watching this. Was literally listening to a song BY The Vapors when they passed the van.

[@franciscolopez7101]

Do you suppose the guy driving the van was Japanese, or just turning Japanese?

[@etuaz]

I drove the bridge in the 1980s to get to school in Seattle from my home in Bellevue. The video shows 2 lanes each way but it would also change to 3 lanes west + 1 lane east (and vice versa) during rush hours. The middle lanes were called "reversible lanes," and the green arrow above the lane would change to a flashing red "X" to tell you the lane direction was going to change soon. It would then go to a solid red "X" when oncoming traffic would then start using the lane in the opposite direction. There were no barriers so it was very dangerous especially on dark raining days when visibility was bad with oncoming headlights. The tunnel was particularly sketchy as there were sharp turns entering and leaving the tunnel and you'd pass so close to oncoming traffic. As a 16 year old new driver I'm glad I never had an accident on the bridge, but bad collisions and sideswipes were fairly common.

[@MrWolfTickets]

Those reversible lanes are a trip!! I think I heard the term 'suicide switch' referring to them either here or maybe on the 1st ave S bridge back in the day. Thanks for the details about the switch over procedure. It's crazy to think that it was just lights and not fully isolated like the I-5 Express Lanes.

[@BillKibby1]

Do you remember the "Bulge" which was midspan on the floating bridge? It was a spot where the bridge traffic split, each 2 lanes turning away sharply from the center of the bridge, then back together. Was the point where two of the bridge pontoons would swing away from each other in opposite directions to allow large boats to pass through. This was a crazy dangerous piece of traffic when the reversible lanes were in play. Otherwise fun to watch, I'd just turned 19 when this was filmed, thousands of trips along that stretch of I-90 :)

[@chetpomeroy1399]

When I first came up here in the late-1980's this was one of the first things I noticed. It seemed so confusing and scary, and avoided it like the plague, driving the 520 Bridge, instead.

[@NoName-fo7mz]

This is the best cannel on youtube

[@TheJeffbarrett]

Seattle when it was still a cool place to live.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

Seems a lot more crowded and noisy now.

[@patbooth1798]

Takes me back to the good old days when I was having a Great Time ! Thank you !!

[@compdude100]

Wow, it's crazy to see what I-90 looked like before the second bridge was built and before all the lids on Mercer Island. It sure looked very much like something you'd expect from a 1940 freeway and reminds me a lot of the Arroyo Seco Parkway/Pasadena Freeway (CA 110) in LA, which also opened in 1940.

[@Welcome28487]

Weird not seeing the T mobile building in factoria. This is incredible

[@chetpomeroy1399]

When that building went up, about 10 years later, the company that owned it back then was called Attachmate.

[@scotth1992]

I love this video! Back when Seattle was a nice place to live! I took this route every night from Boeing Plant 2. What wonderful memories! Please post more if you have more! Thank you!

[@karl1137]

My dad also worked at Boeing plant 2 in the early 1980s on into his retirement in the 2010s. he commuted via I90 to the Bellevue/Kirkland area.

[@ethanSderrick]

I find these old recordings really interesting at times!

[@mofostopheles]

Thanks for posting, brings back a lot of memories.

[@ArthurAllen2]

The bulge has been removed. I guess we enjoyed a straight bridge section for longer than I thought before it sank. Also: the temporary lane control signals above the new East Channel bridge.😆

[@johnnyrottenwood4935]

Oh wow. I saw myself and my buddy picking up litter next to the little bus. We worked for Dept. of Ecology that summer.

[@richardgadberry8398]

I was born in '83. My only recollection of the old I-90 bridge is from watching "Almost Live."

[@Quantum_Prophet42]

If you watch this while listening to MiMo Podcast 42, it gives a whole different feel.

[@OrdinaryDude]

I remember this drive before they took the kink of the bridge and added the higher east channel bridge.

[@christineayres7199]

Can you build me a time machine back to the 1980s please ? It was the best decade ever , sadly i was born in 86 so missed it and the 90s was never as good , the cars were more fun in the 80s too

[@Thinking.Of.Some.Handle]

Barely any traffic

[@MetalTeamster]

Issaquah is unbelievable in this. There wasn't 5 percent then what is there today. The red chev pickup going by front street at 35-40 mph ...20:00 ....today would either be rear ended or pulled over by the vaxed WSP

[@KB-hn3tx]

Thanks for this upload! It's interesting to see how I-90 eastbound looked some decades ago. A lot less traffic, no graffiti, and I barely remember those silly looking white dots separating all the lanes. Also those occasional white `V' painted on the shoulders - what was that? Such a blast from the past !

[@samsticka]

Pretty incredible seeing I-90 under construction. It doesn't really look like an interstate as it goes through Seattle, then crosses over the Lake Washington Bridge, then goes through Mercer Island. It just looks like a normal regular street. Then around the I-405 interchange, it actually starts to look like an interstate.

[@SparkeyCox]

As you come off Mercer Island you hit what we called the "New Freeway - that part at 405 on out to North Bend was finished in the mid 1970's - Took them years to finish that last section through Mercer Island and to Seattle.

[@BillKibby1]

@@SparkeyCox Do you remember all the interchange ramps in seattle that just stopped mid-air around 90 & 5 for quite a few years? A buddy in high school did a photo essay on them in around 1980.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

@@BillKibby1 Years and years ago, I remember driving by those on northbound I-5. Folks back then called them the "ramps to nowhere."

[@MetalTeamster]

The open roads are mind blowing. The state was able to afford all those lanes then , and they have not built many more lanes since with massive more taxpayers

[@BillKibby1]

This was not too many years after removing the toll booth from the 520 floating bridge. If I recall it was $0.35 to cross, or $0.10 if you had 3 or more passengers. And now it's how much? (Never crossed again since reinstating)

[@middleclassretiree]

Wow talk about a trip down memory lane, I love it I was bright eyed 21yr old back then with the world in front of me, to bad unemployment was so high especially in my age bracket it was about 20% unemployment for young men trying to start out so I moved to California for a few years and that was great back then. It’s cool to watch all these cars back then that nobody liked at the time and today people are paying a fortune for them 😂

[@chetpomeroy1399]

About five years later when I arrived, it seemed jobs were going begging everywhere!

[@GenX_US_Marine]

Ah, the good ole days.

[@evillangbuildsmc2468]

There were reversible lanes on the bridge.

[@french1956]

The suicide lanes when they were active

[@OrdinaryDude]

Wow, Issaquah is EMPTY.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

This was about 5 years before I arrived. In Issaquah, there doesn't look like much development on Gilman Boulevard at that time. No QFC, no *nothing!*

[@ahoorakia]

City of ISSAQUAH didn't want improvement, back early 90's I was working at SKIPPER'S,and my manager back then told me they don't allow us to put our regular bright color sign it has to be doll blue and yellow because they want people be attracted to city! they wanted to keep the city old school,and low population,they were happy with bunch of rednecks there😂😂😂

[@Ziduche]

I took that road 2 days ago. Multiply traffic by a factor of 10, at least.

[@fizjoterapiasan9359]

Do you have any videos from roads around Mount Rainier and it's National Park?

[@ZachNelson2006]

Can you find more videos of Vancouver please? That's my hometown and it's the city i live in:)

[@theresakruse1655]

If someone had editing skills, it would be fun to have side-by-sides with these old videos & what it looks like now.

[@PPLibertiesNetwork-xg1gw]

I've foundv4 other channels w wa state dash cam vids: YES!! 1983: KTOY AND KNBQ!!! KUPS!!

[@mrshiney2]

Looks like slow motion, speed limit was still 55

[@Bunke09]

I was 10 years old and lived up that road to the right at the last exit in the video 436th/Ceder Falls rd in 1983.

[@alooga555]

Fast forward to 2033. You still don't see any light rail trains crossing the floating bridge.🤣

[@BenGarrott]

55 is a low speed limit for I-90 dang

[@karl1137]

55 mph was the national interstate speed limit from 1974 to when the federal government repealed it in 1995. After that it was left to the individual states to decide their own speed limits.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

One could get a speeding ticket if they went over 60 in those days.

[@KBtothefuture]

52 seconds... Did the scammer almost rear end the car in front of him?

[@ahoorakia]

no he was just tailgating😂😂

[@gertrudelanny9241]

Long before the billionaires and California transplants ruined the Emerald City…