I90 Bridge Sinks

[@unappealingundesirable2826]

I was born in Seattle in 1973, where I grew up. Japanese-American. I remember, my senior year of high school, on a Sunday morning, seeing footage of I-90 sinking.

[@bryum8898]

There was a parody written about this bridge sinking to the tune of the Edmond Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot that was played in Seattle at the time. One line was "And on the East side all the stockbrokers cried as their commute went from minutes to hours."

[@Weathergoat]

I don't know how much is still down there, but if you Google for 'i-90 diving' you'll find a whole bunch of pages and videos from people who have explored the debris that is still laying at the bottom.

[@oshi8994]

I drive over this bridge twice a day. Hope it stays afloat while I'm going over it!

[@Weathergoat]

Remember when the drawspan on the 520 malfunctioned and opened during rush hour? I remember being a bit nervous afterwards whenever mum or dad drove us over it! Somewhere I've got a pile of old Seattle Times from that era with one about that incident.

[@nickw22689]

When was that?? That’s horrifying. Sometime in the mid to late 90s?

[@ExploreInMotion]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/amTNZn2ZipKtqNk

[@MatthewDoel32]

That's very cheerful broadcast music for this.

[@nickw22689]

Ouch, you can see somebody’s car going down with that last piece of bridge around 1:02.

[@ExploreInMotion]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/amTNZn2ZipKtqNk

[@benjplanelover9]

I remember watching this a long time ago for the first time back during the time me and my family lived in Redmond. It made me scared of going over the 520 floating bridge again and scared for my brothers who used to commute over it every weekend from Seattle to visit us. We don't live in Redmond anymore though and only one of my brothers still lives in Seattle and doesn't have to go over it anymore.

[@ExploreInMotion]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/amTNZn2ZipKtqNk

[@Salalic]

There was a really good memorial video of this they played at the end of the newscast I cannot find anywhere..

[@drtee51]

Washington doesn't seem to have much luck with its bridges. This, the Skagit Bridge, the old Tacoma Bridge. Of course, at least no one ever gets killed.

[@drtee51]

Oops! Sorry! I didn't realize that.

[@ecthelion1735]

I remember seeing this broadcast. I hate how fast time moves.

[@KingTriton1837]

Did they ever retrieve those pieces that sank from the bottom of Lake Washington?

[@aaronsanislo860]

Why would they?

[@abelalatorre1903]

@@aaronsanislo860 Fr😂 billions of ponds of concrete

[@SeattleLA]

I sure remember this. Also, the absolutely harrowing experience using "reversible lanes" . How antiquated that was. Nice of our state to begin tolling 520 again...

[@captsnappy9220]

Tolling or taxes: you decide.

[@frankjenkins3459]

Came up one afternoon heading eastbound to the "veer to the right" with a semi on my right and an oncoming semi heading at me on an angle about to veer left into the straightaway westbound....

[@ExploreInMotion]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/amTNZn2ZipKtqNk

[@Galeere2]

[sounds of bridge sinking]

[@sicks6six]

I'd never heard of this, knew about the wobbly bridge that buckled and twisted and fell down, but this never reached us here in the UK,

[@BradMaestas]

I remember this well. I was a kid living in Federal Way when this happened. We used to go over this bridge fairly often and always thought it was kinda sketchy.

[@ExploreInMotion]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/amTNZn2ZipKtqNk

[@CyrusNixes]

Awesome video. I heard about this but didn't know it was so recent. I think Seattle storms are fascinating - I hope I get yo see one when I'm there this Christmas.

[@Krisna_K]

I remember when this happened back in 1990! I was 18!

[@ufofan1980]

Wow, I'm suprirsed this didn't happen to the 520 Floater. I remember when Hood Canal Bridge broke and the helluva mess that caused for us people living on the Peninsula trying to get to Tacoma.

[@BottarLeone]

Hopefully everyone stood afar and watch this bridge sink and not get entangled with it.

[@Daren_PNW]

How many know what happened? I heard the original design intact was over-engineered and actually therefore in fine shape. I believe it was a WSDOT mistake during renovations which unsealed the watertight pontoon doors.

[@xXriseagainst54Xx]

So wait.. did they ever attempt to clean it out or is there an entire bridge still sitting beneath the lake?

[@scholasticendeavor]

@abysmalatrocious I live in downtown Seattle and dove on the wreck of the bridge just last month. It's pretty much intact.

[@HoltCalifornia]

Why is there happy music in the beginning of an collapse?

[@SteveCarras]

That's sad. This was tyhe origi9nal Seattle Floating Bridge. Was down before the only [so far] time that I've visited Seattle, in 1998 [I live in Southern California, just goes to show you how far people come to places frrom places.BTW Interewsting story, Long Beach had a pontoon bridge thru the late 1960s.]

[@arewedunyet2]

I don't know the official sanitized version of why the I-90 bridge sank in 1990, but I have my own theory. At the time, future US President Barack Obama was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and I don't think he had anything to do with it. I commutted to Seattle and back to Mercer Island every work day then, still do, and observed a bizarre process that led to the bridge's demise in my opinion. The new I-90 bridge was open to two-way traffic, and the old bridge was closed while it was being refurbished. Construction crews jackhammered the old bridge surface leaving open holes which allowed rain water into the pontoons. Construction crews also cut 20+ approximately 5' H x 3' W port holes in the sides of the bridge pontoons about 2' above the water line for future maintenance access. The new steel doors to seal the port holes (which looked like US Navy battleship watertight doors with a round wheel-type handles) were lined up on the Seattle side Lake Washington beach, but never installed. The number of 5' x 3' port holes increased daily, but the watertight doors remained on the beach uninstalled. Then over the 1990 Thanksgiving Day weekend Seattle and the vulnerable bridge experienced a windy rain storm with only 1 person on duty to watch the bridge. The storm rain water leaked through the bridge surface holes and the wind washed water into the pontoons through the open port holes, causing the pontoons to take on water, one pontoon sank like a boat from the water inside, things got out of hand, then started a chain reaction with one pontoon after another being pulled down into the lake. A disaster unfolded in front of us watching from the beach on the Mercer Island side and on TV. Construction crews tried to sever connecting cables between pontoons but were unsuccessful until most of the bridge sank into the lake. I filmed some of it from the beach on Sony Betamax cassettes, and created a video clip of news coverage we call "The Bridge Down Under" that I'll post here someday.

[@CardboardSliver]

That poor LTD didn't have to die :c

[@yulewave1]

CarluvrSD the bridge wasn't open the next day. Nice story though.

[@Fizzyphukoff]

I was 6 and living on mercer Island when this happened.

[@evillangbuildsmc2468]

They used the reversible lanes

[@handsomerube]

@HoltCalifornia LOL...it's so ridiculous! like we're about to watch a huskies game or something...

[@SinksExpress]

What the hell is that?

[@CyrusNixes]

Yeah, but I thought it had happened back in the 70's.

[@harveypost7799]

I guess not the Viagra bridge anymore...cough cough..boaters do the strangest things..I sat in bac seat looked out passenger seat window,as we entered the floating bridge ' OH SHES TAKING THE BAIT '...

[@eric1972sea]

@djjimi Prove it then!

[@benjplanelover9]

Also, a floating bridge is a BAD idea.

[@captsnappy9220]

Because...?

[@scottmatheson3346]

Driving is a bad idea, think of all the people who die doing it. If you are so safety-conscious, maybe stay off the roadways entirely ...

[@gantmj]

Thanks, Obama!

[@MicPGTS]

Dummy

[@dirttdude]

i think this is the first racist bridge

[@ryan9570]

what a piece of crap! was this built by the Tony Soprano Construction Company?

[@captsnappy9220]

Read this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bridge#1990_disaster

[@lekoman]

[sounds of bridge sinking]