Montlake Bridge Opening

Our days living in Chicago included a lot of bridge raising experiences.  The bascule bridges along the Chicago River were a constant source of interest to me and, despite seeing them raise regularly during the spring and fall boat runs, I never got bored of it.  There are a bunch of bascule bridges in the Seattle area too.  One of the older ones is the bridge across the Montlake Cut near the University of Washington.

I took a bike ride that cross Lake Washington on the 520 bridge and that then turned up to the university and across the Cut.  Just as I started across the bridge, the warning tones started.  I was already heading across so didn’t stop but, once on the other side, I did pause to watch the bridge open.  It took me right back to my Chicago days.  I didn’t wait for it to lower again because I wanted to keep going on my ride but a fun thing to see again.  I imagine the traffic backups make the bridge openings a little less popular with motorists and I suspect I would have been a bit miffed if I had been a few seconds later!  I hope they turn the power off for the wires!

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