‘The bridge’ stirred imaginations from the beginning

“The bridge, completed, flaunts itself arrogantly across the sky line, it looks far down into the swirling pools and eddies of the pass’ treacherous waters, it looks out on either side upon a view of surpassing beauty and grandeur.” Thus, the Island County Farm Bureau News, the predecessor of the Whidbey News-Times, announced the completion of the Deception Pass Bridge on July 25, 1935. The flowery language and sheer volumes of newspaper stories about the building of Deception Pass Bridge, during the midst of the Great Depression, underscores how important and impressive the project was for people in the region.

By Jessie Stensland • July 29, 2010 4:53 pm
Construction crews work on the road surface of the Deception Pass Bridge in the months leading up to its opening in the summer of 1935.
Construction crews work on the road surface of the Deception Pass Bridge in the months leading up to its opening in the summer of 1935.

“The bridge, completed, flaunts itself arrogantly across the sky line, it looks far down into the swirling pools and eddies of the pass’ treacherous waters, it looks out on either side upon a view of surpassing beauty and grandeur.”

Thus, the Island County Farm Bureau News, the predecessor of the Whidbey News-Times, announced the completion of the Deception Pass Bridge on July 25, 1935. The flowery language and sheer volumes of newspaper stories about the building of Deception Pass Bridge, during the midst of the Great Depression, underscores how important and impressive the project was for people in the region.

At the time, the graceful but imposing steel spans even seemed alarming to some folks.

“I remember hearing a number of women say, ‘There’s no way they will get me over that,” said John Tursi, an Anacortes resident who was at the bridge opening ceremony 75 years ago.

Newspaper accounts from the time and original documents, especially the “final record notes” of the project from the state Department of Highways, tell the story of the bridge’s inception and construction.

As early as 1908, state lawmakers considered building a bridge at Deception Pass to unite Whidbey Island with Skagit County and the mainland, according to the Farm Bureau News. Several bridge-building proposals went through the Legislature over the next couple of decades, including a plan to build a toll bridge.

A couple of North Whidbey residents played pivotal roles in finally getting the project off the ground. Lyle Muzzall was president of the Deception Pass Bridge Association, a lobbying group that formed out of Oak Harbor’s American Legion. Pearl Wanamaker, a state representative, worked tirelessly with state and local officials to get the bridge built.

A breakthrough came in 1933 when the proposed bridge was listed as a project to be partially funded through the federal Public Works Administration, a New Deal agency. That same year, an allocation for the bridge project was made within the Washington Emergency Relief Administration, which was established to provide public relief during the Depression.

On June 19, 1934, the Puget Construction Company of Seattle was awarded the contract to build the bridge, with a low bid of $304,755. The structural steel for the bridge was trucked in from Wallace Bridge and Structural Steel fabricators in Seattle.

As the final record notes explain, the famous structure is actually two bridges with tiny Pass Island between the two. One is a steel cantilever design that’s 900 feet long, with a main span of 550 feet, connecting Whidbey Island to Pass Island. The other is a steel arch design, 450 feet long with a main span of 350 feet, connecting Pass Island to Fidalgo Island.

The bridge is 180 feet above the swirling waters of Deception Pass.

Construction started on Aug. 6, 1934, as workers began excavating the solid rock for the footing of pier No. 1.

Tursi was a 16-year-old member of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was doing work to improve facilities at Deception Pass Park. He was the only member of the CCC to actually work on the bridge, though it was just for a couple of days of manual labor. He explained that he was “traded” to the construction company in exchange for the use of a cement mixer.

“The people working on the bridge got a little angry because I was only getting a dollar a day,” he said.

But the CCC boys did work on the approaches to the bridges. Tursi said he also worked on an underpass and a parking lot next to the bridge.

An average of 50 men worked daily on the bridge, according to final record notes. Nobody was killed during construction, but there were injuries. Tursi witnessed a man get his fingers “clipped off” while helping to haul a steel girder.

The contract for the bridge was completed July 25, 1935, and the dedication ceremony for the opening of the bridge was held July 31, 1935.

“It is your bridge. Use it. Enjoy it. And as you use and enjoy it give a thought to those who labored that it might be yours. Thank them from the bottom of your heart, for its strength, its beauty, its safety and its convenience,” the Farm Bureau News stated on July 25, 1935.