Blue Bridge celebrates its 70th birthday

BY GALE METCALF

On July 30, 1954 a handful of boys on bicycles started over the traffic lanes of today’s Blue Bridge connecting Pasco and Kennewick.

They were not endangered by hazardous heavy traffic zooming by at high speeds.

They were the traffic.

The first to cross the Blue Bridge by unceremoniously flying by the cars and vehicles of dignitaries. State and local officials and citizens of note were minutes away from being the first to cross after dedication ceremonies opening the new bridge to traffic between the two cities.

The boys beat them to it.

This summer on July 30, the Blue Bridge celebrates its 70th birthday.

The 4-lane arch-truss bridge is officially named the Pioneer Memorial Bridge. But for most of its life it has been warmly known and simply referred to by Tri-Citians for its soft blue color.

The Blue Bridge.

It is one of three bridges or sets of bridges linking Pasco, Kennewick and Richland. They include the Cable Bridge, a link in state Highway 397 between Pasco and Kennewick, and the Volpentest-Lee bridges crossing the Columbia River between Pasco and Richland on Interstate 182. The Blue Bridge serves state Highway 395.

Before the Blue Bridge, the only automobile link between Pasco and Kennewick was by the old, narrow 2-lane Green Bridge which opened in 1922. There was no bridge connection to Richland.

Daily traffic on the Green Bridge the year it opened in the 1920s totaled about 200 cars and trucks. By the late 1940s some 10,000 vehicles a day were crossing, creating slow, congested conditions.

Traffic had heated up with Hanford’s growth. Construction underway on McNary Dam further intensified it.

Frustrations and growing concerns led a delegation of 14 civic leaders from Kennewick, Pasco and Kiona to Olympia in 1949. Meeting with Governor Arthur B. Langlie, they laid out their needs for a new bridge.

In 1951 the Washington State Legislature approved a $66,700,000 statewide bond issue for road improvements.

They included widening the Snoqualmie Pass highway, and improving Highway 99 running through the state.

But, money also was included to build a new 4-lane bridge between Pasco and Kennewick. A major force behind getting the money was a state senator named Stanton Ganders, a Spokane Democrat. He would say later it was the first time money for road improvements had been issued by the state.

Later, two of Ganders’ children, daughters Linda and Lisa, would describe the Blue Bridge as “Daddy’s Bridge.”

The project was in phases, both in contracts and in construction.

Work began on September 19, 1951, after three companies were awarded $2 million in contracts. They were: Jarvis Construction Co.; Robert W. Austin, Inc.; and Cascade Construction Co.

Groundbreaking ceremonies featured Pasco Mayor John Beck, and Kennewick Mayor Urban Koelker turning the first shovel of earth, along with Richland Community Council leader Dr. D.W. Pearce. Richland was still being run by the U.S. government following its takeover early in World War II for production of plutonium at the top secret Hanford plant for what came to be an atomic bomb. The city reverted to civilian control in 1958.

Participating in the groundbreaking ceremonies were Miss Pasco Barbara Wickham, Miss Kennewick Wanda Arnold, and Miss Richland Carol Weeks. The role of Miss Tri-Cities did not then exist.

Also participating were Glenn C. Lee, publisher of the Tri-City Herald, and Tom Doyle, district highway engineer for the state Department of Highways.

Work moved fast:

– Pontoon bridges were assembled by the end of September, with an eye on the 13 piers to be built.

– By the first week of October crews were excavating for piers on the Pasco side of the river, and work on the first five piers began near the end of November. Pier 1 was to be on the Kennewick side, and pier 13 on the Pasco side.

— A huge cement plant capable of producing 100 yards of concrete per hour also was put in operation in Pasco. Each pier in mid-river was encased in enough concrete to cover an entire city block, and 885,000 pounds of rebar went into every pier. High water severely limited work on the piers in the spring of 1952, but all 13 were still completed in early 1953.

In April 1953 a $3 million contract was awarded by the cities to the American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel Corporation for building the bridge superstructure. Two huge cantilever spans were joined in early February 1954. Lights were installed in May and deck work began.

An Ephrata company, Cherf Brothers and Sankay, was awarded a $237,000 contract in January 1954 to build a traffic cloverleaf on the Kennewick side of the bridge and to grade the approach. It was the bridge project’s last major component.

The new bridge was 66 feet wide with four lanes, compared to the 2-lane old Green Bridge which was 23-feet wide. The new Blue Bridge, which was painted a traditional green for bridges at the time, was 2,520 feet long spanning the river with approaches.

Comprising 5,533 tons of steel, and 79,704 tons of concrete, the new bridge weighed 85,237 tons. It cost nearly $7 million.

It was later painted blue, from which its current identity derives.

On dedication day, local officials joined a gathering of state officials for ceremonies for opening the new bridge to traffic.

Leading the ceremonies was Julia Butler Hansen, chairwoman of the state Roads and Bridges Committee in the Washington State Legislature. A Cathlamet Democrat, she later became just the second woman from Washington state elected to Congress. She represented the 3rd Congressional District for 14 years.

She was part of a ceremonial motorcade assembling at the Pasco Elks Club at 9:30 a.m., which left at 10:15 a.m. for a short trip to the bridge on the Pasco side. A color guard and marching band from Camp Hanford were waiting when the motorcade arrived. Music and water skiing entertained an estimated 3,000 gathered for the ceremonies.

Speakers included various officials from the multiplicity of entities, including William A. Bugge, head of the Washington State Highway Department, and Raymond Moisio, chairman of the Washington State Highway Commission who noted “the unity between management and labor during construction,” a sentiment echoed by Robert Sheets, national vice president of the International Hod Carriers.

Sheets noted “that everyone from the farmer to the teacher had a hand in building the bridge so it belongs to everyone.”

Ralph Rogers of Pasco served as master of ceremonies.

Participating in cutting the ceremonial ribbon at 11:40 a.m. were Hansen and Jean Mullinreaux, queen of the Benton-Franklin County Fair and Rodeo, and Miss Benton County, Betty Sue Hill. Hansen praised Ganders and two other legislators, O.H. Olson, and Al Henry for making the bridge possible.

Years later Ganders, asked about his reflections on success in getting the Blue Bridge built, remarked simply: “That bridge was needed and I was all for it.”

Ed Walsh, a longtime Pasco businessman, was sitting behind the wheel of the ceremonial first vehicle set to cross the new bridge, escorting state Rep. Hansen, when the boys on their bicycles sped by and flew across the bridge. They were identified in part as Jerry Brown of Pasco, and Jerry Martin, Dickie Burnett, and Carlos Smith of Kennewick.

Walsh still had the distinction of driving the first car, a Buick convertible, across the bridge after it officially opened. He had a long history of being there when new and first-time automobile spans were dedicated in the Tri-Cities area.

He had been present when the first bridge connecting Walla Walla and Franklin counties across the Snake River was dedicated on May 5, 1921.

“It was kind of windy and they had the speakers stand on the Walla Walla side of the river,” he said during an interview as the cable bridge linking Pasco and Kennewick neared its dedication on September 16, 1978. The 1921 Snake River bridge cost $227,356 and the two counties equally shared the cost.

The Pasco businessman who founded the first taxi company in Pasco, and owned a garage and an automobile dealership, also had been present when the old green bridge was dedicated in 1922. Welsh also was one of the first to drive over it on the first day it was opened to traffic. He was 22-years-old and was driving his own personal Buick when he crossed.

In the early years of those two bridges, both were toll bridges.

“We used to have a saying: ‘You had to pay to get into Pasco and you had to pay to get out of Pasco,’” he said.

Prior to the two 1920s bridges being constructed, Welsh even used the train bridge to Burbank from Franklin County as an automobile crossing when medical emergencies needed tending and a frozen river prevented ferry use.

He described driving Pasco’s Dr. H.B. O’Brien across the Northern Pacific train bridge on the Snake River for delivering babies of expectant Burbank mothers.

“It was a bumpy ride across, but women were going to have babies, so we had to get to Burbank,” he said. “I always owned a Dodge for those trips because they had tough springs.”

Welsh also reflected on the Blue Bridge dedication. “It was so hot that day a state patrolman supplied Mrs. Hansen with a blanket to shade herself during a motorcade to a luncheon at the Pasco Elks Club,” he said.

After Julia Butler Hansen cut the ribbon, the motorcade crossed onto the Kennewick side behind the Camp Hanford band. Cars drove in the inside lanes and pedestrians filled the outside lanes.

A former Kennewick mayor, H. W. Desgranges, drove a surrey across, joined on the ride by Glenn C. Lee, Roy Gross and his wife, and Harvey Singleton, all of Richland, and Oscar Rogers of Pasco. Like Welsh, Desgranges also had been present for dedication of what became the old Green Bridge.

The Blue Bridge’s flow of ceremonial participants traveled over the new cloverleaf and down into Kennewick, moving along Imnaha and Fruitland streets to Washington Street, back to what was then Avenue C (Columbia Drive), before returning across the newly opened span.

Participants returned to the Pasco Elks Club for a luncheon hosted by Kennewick attorney Charles Powell. In 1959, he was nominated by President Eisenhower and approved by the United States senate to be a U.S. District Court judge. Powell became chief judge for Washington state’s Eastern Division.

Historical honors came to the Blue Bridge in 2002 when it was placed in the National Register of Historical Places for architecture and engineering significance.