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Bridges over Spokane’s Latah Creek evolve

By Jesse Tinsley, The Spokesman-Review
Published: January 25, 2025, 5:56am

SPOKANE — While the Spokane River slowed north- and south-bound travel in early Spokane, Latah Creek also presented a challenge to the east-west flow of traffic. The creek was once commonly called Hangman Creek, a macabre reference to the execution of Native leaders by the U.S. Army under the direction of Gen. George Wright in 1858.

Although several small bridges have crossed the creek, one of the earliest, and most important, was built at the bottom of the Riverside Avenue hill in the late 1880s, carrying horseback riders and wagons of cargo to outlying areas.

That early span was replaced with a concrete bridge in 1920 and renamed the Marne Bridge, after a World War I battle, at the request of veterans of that war.

Railroad companies built their own high steel trestles to move cargo and passenger trains over the river and creek. But the arrival of the automobile in the early 20th century, bringing high speed cross-country capability, led to construction of the Latah Bridge, also called the Sunset Bridge, in 1913. The elegantly arched concrete bridge guided downtown traffic onto the Sunset Highway, designated in 1915 as the first continuous east-west highway in Washington. The Sunset Highway was one of 22 primary state highways in Washington before a modern numbering system was implemented in 1964.

A new interstate freeway bridge over Latah Creek was completed in 1963, a decade before Interstate 90 was declared complete through the city.

The elevated train trestle between the two Latah Creek bridges was built in 1972 to carry rail traffic through Spokane. Rail volume had shrunk through the 20th century and a merger of four major railroads in 1970 had created the Burlington Northern.

The aging Sunset Bridge, now more than 110 years old, is still in use but is under severe weight restrictions and traffic has been cut back from four lanes to two since 2022. The bridge is on the city’s list of priorities with an estimated replacement cost of $65 million.

The I-90 bridge, now more than 60 years old, is on a list of bridges in “poor” condition, according to the Federal Highway Administration, which estimates 40,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day. Inspectors and work crews will watch for safety issues, Mark Gaines, bridge structural engineer for the Washington Department of Transportation, told The Spokesman-Review in 2022.

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