Yesterday, we asked you to guess a the location of an overpass. Commenter Kalakalot was the first to get this: Aurora Ave N and N 41st St.
Images: Seattle Municipal Archives, Google Maps In 1936, Aurora Ave N had found popularity relatively recently; the Aurora Bridge had just been dedicated in 1932, and I-5 wouldn't be completed until the '60s. All at once, it had become the most popular way to travel north-south in Seattle, leading PTA and neighborhood groups to push for a pedestrian overpass, which was completed in 1935. According to a Seattle Times report (which also features a super-cool 2008 recreation of this very photo!), there was a little NIMBY resistance that wanted a tunnel instead.
As it turns out, this overpass is the only structure in this intersection still remaining from the 1930s. Those concrete traffic islands were the first thing to go; per that Times piece, 11 people were killed over the course of five years from motorists crashing into them.
· Pedestrian overpass on Seattle's busy Aurora Avenue saves lives [Seattle Times]
· All Cornerspotter coverage [CS]
Written by Sarah Anne Lloyd