Back     Removing the Bridge from Bridge Drop
   

Removing the 'Bridge' from 'Bridge Drop' is now physically complete, save for the name it still bears.

Because the bridge girders were salvaged from the original Tacoma Narrows bridge, which was nicknamed 'Galloping Gertie', I wonder if that might be a good new name, if any is appropriate, for the rapid.		  

 

The process by which the bridge was removed has been, by all accounts, a complicated one and it's likely that nobody will ever know all of the details.  Many people played parts, and all of them deserve some form of acknowledgement for contributing to the result of removing the bridge from the river.

 

Pictures of the bridge removal process.  All photos here supplied by Barbara Hathaway, the project manager for Skagit County who saw this through to completion.

Overhead view of the bridge before the work began.

The work Begins

Cutting up the steel

Flying out one section

Flying out another

The last two are flown out together

Mick, one of the workers on this project, walks the plank.

Rick and Mick

The yarder, parked up on the road
 
The mail, below, speaks for itself.  The second email reflects Barbara's account of who played a part in the success of getting the bridge removed.

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From: BarbaraHathaway
Sent: Wed 10/15/2003 3:36 PM
To: chrisj
Subject: Your big page O' Stuff
 
Hi Chris
Hey just a note to let you know that we (Skagit County) hired a contractor to remove the steel girders from the Cascade River aka Bridge Drop.  All the girders are out of the river, there may be some debris left like concrete chunks or reinforcing steel, but the "strainer" is gone.  I can send some photos I took as the girders were being cut up and yarded out.
 
Best regards
 
Barb Hathaway
Field Engineer/Geologist
 Skagit County Public Works
1800 Continental Place
Mount Vernon, WA  98273-5625
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To her offer of photos (seen above), I said 'yes, please'.  I also requested her version of how the bridge was removed, who was involved, how did it happen, and got the following, along with the pictures.

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From: BarbaraHathaway
Sent: Thu 10/16/2003 2:34 PM
To: Chris Joosse
Subject: RE: Your big page O' Stuff

 
Hi Chris,
 
A couple of years agor Jim Chu, Wild and Scenic River manager for the US Forest Service, out of the Sedro Woolley office, pointed out to our County Engineer how dangerous the girders were.  He said we should remove them.  I wound up with the job of making it happen.  I am the Skagit County Bridge Inspector, so I get these miscellaneous projects from time to time.  We applied for Fed funding to help pay for the cost, but didn't get anywhere.  So I called some local loggers and asked them if they thought they could take them out of the river with a skyline logging operation.  I got phone quotes from them and took the lowest offer.  The Forest Service did a Biological Assessment for us, and the Fish and Wildlife Department came through with a Hydraulic Project Approval really quickly.  So it really was a joint effort on the permitting.  They worked Saturday September 13, and Sunday Sept 14th to get the girders cut up and brought up to the Cascade River Road, the next week the county crew picked up the pieces and took them to salvage at Skagit River Steel. 
 
Maybe you already know this but these steel girders were salvaged from the original Galloping Girdy, aka the First Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and used to build the Lookout Creek Bridge, which washed out in an avalanche in 1980.
 
Sincerely
Barb Hathaway
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