Where did the old Bell Street Bridge go?

The original Bell Street Bridge was a wooden trestle built in 1915 to provide access to Pier 66 from Elliott Avenue and the hillside above.

In the early 1900s, trestle bridges connected many of Seattle's piers on the central waterfront with the top of the bluff, offering an easy way to negotiate the steep hillside between the two. In the early days, access to the piers along what is now Alaskan Way was difficult, because of the number of railroads in the area and the tremendous waterfront congestion. Bridging over this mess improved access to the piers.

The 1915 Bell Street Bridge was replaced in 1931 with a concrete bridge. Not only did this new bridge give access to Pier 66, but a ramp system in front of the building allowed vehicle access to Alaskan Way as well. A remodel of the Pier 66 building eliminated the need for the bridge and ramp, and they were removed in the early 1980s.

The bridge you see before you was built in 1995 to offer pedestrian access between the hillside and the waterfront, as part of the Port of Seattle's Bell Street Pier redevelopment. On of the Port's major goals in undertaking the Bell Street Pier project was to link the waterfront with the city behind it - in this case the Denny Regrade neighborhood and the Pike Place Market. The Bell Street Bridge fulfills this goal.

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Joshua Greene
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