Let’s Everyone Wish the Agate Pass Bridge a Happy Birthday! The Old Green Lady Turns a Spry 75-Years-Old tomorrow, October 7!

For most of us, the Agate Pass Bridge is our link to the mainland of Kitsap County. In case the date slipped by you, the Old Green Lady is turning 75 years old on October 7 – tomorrow! We don’t know if there are any formal celebrations planned on behalf of this momentous occasion, but many islanders and Kitsapers alike should give a shout out to this impressive span the next time they cross her still functioning and formidable roadway.

The bridge was constructed prior to its opening in 1950, as a more or less social and economic move to connect the Kitsap Peninsula – and towns and cities like Poulsbo, Bremerton and Port Orchard – to Bainbridge Island, which at the time had a much sparser population than today’s 25,000-plus.  The steel truss cantilevered bridge that carries traffic north and south along State Highway 305 from the Washington State Ferry Terminal, replaced a car ferry service — known as the Mosquito Fleet by some historians – that dated from the 1920s.

When it first opened, the Agate Pass Bridge operated as a toll bridge toll bridge until October 1, 1951. Tolls generated by traffic across the bridge repaid the bond issue bond issue authorized by the Washington State Legislature. The toll was 35 cents per car plus driver and five cents per passenger. The Washington Toll Bridge Authority managed the bridge during the one year it took to repay the bond.

The bridge, which spans 1,229 feet long across the beautiful waters of Agate Pass, cost $1,351,363 to build. That seems like small potatoes compared to infrastructure projects nowadays.

On the ceremonial opening day, State Highway Director William A. Bugge opened the bridge by fitting a giant wooden key into a large lock suspended over the bridge roadway. Next on the Highway Department’s agenda was “straightening, widening, and relocating 4.7 miles of highway from near Poulsbo to the north end of the bridge and 4 miles from the south end of the bridge to near Winslow. The [existing] narrow winding roads … are dotted with signs: ’20 M.P.H, ‘” reported The Seattle Times, while marking the occasion.

The Agate Pass Bridge provided (and continues to provide) a direct route between Seattle, via the Seattle-Bainbridge Island ferry, and the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas. The bridge crosses the aforementioned Agate Pass 75 feet above the water and has a channel clearance of 300 feet between piers. Today, some 22,000 cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles pass over the bridge to and from our Emerald Isle.

What was it like back then when the bridge was first put into place and being used local residents? Our friend Dan Riley, who grew up on Bainbridge and is now 87 years old, remembers driving to and fro across the span when he was in high school in the mid-1950s. “The toll on the bridge was more than (we) paid for a gallon of gas,” grouses Riley, who still lives in the Winslow area in a house he built in the 1960s.

He remembers a young man, whose name he couldn’t quite recall, “who rode his bike across the bridge” and who was considered by locals at the time “to be the first person to ride across the bridge.” Tolls were collected on Suqamish side of the bridge before the toll booth was disbanded, Riley says. He graduated from Bainbridge High School in 1956. His graduating class had 59 students, and the island’s population at the time was around 5,000 people. His house was worth about $25,000 when it was built. Today’s it’s valued at $700,000.

Even though the Agate Pass Bridge gets quite a workout on a daily basis from cars, buses and heavy trucks – most of which didn’t exist 50 years ago – there’s no plan in the works to replace the bridge or expand it.

“The Agate Pass Bridge is not due for any upgrade(s) or realignment(s) in the foreseeable future,” says Poulsbo City Councilman Ed Stern, who has been involved in regional transportation issues for years. “It’s just a question of annual maintenance. There has been talk in the past of rerouting it to the north by 100 yards with a new bridge, but (that move) also would interfere with tribal family properties on the mainland side,” Stern explains.

So for now, we will have to live with the bridge the way it is and hope state highway maintenance can keep her in tiptop shape. … In case you were wondering, the Agate Pass Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.