Lenora Street Bridge - Seattle, WA - Look-Out Towers on Waymarking.com

The plaque says, "In the early 1900s, trestle bridges connected many of Seattle's piers on the central waterfront with the top of the bluff, offering an easy way to negotiate the steep hillside between the two. In the early days, access to the piers along what is now Alaskan Way was difficult, because of the number of railroads in the area and the tremendous waterfront congestion. Bridging over this mess improved access to the piers from the bluff.
This bridge, the Lenora Street bridge, was originally built in 1935 to provide access to the second level of Pier 64/65, a maritime warehouse Although Alaskan Way was probably not as congested as in the early 1900s, the bridge did make it easier to move goods to and from the warehouse and allowed access directly into the north end of the Pike Place Market, a major commercial center of Seattle.

The Alaskan Way viaduct above you was built in the 1950s. The viaduct facilitated the movement of traffic through the city, but the route completely bypassed the waterfront, and the ease of vehicular transportation further eroded the need for waterborne transporta- tion up and down Puget Sound. The viaduct, which physically and visually separated the waterfront from the downtown, was a maior factor in the decline of Seattle's central waterfront

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The bridge you see before you was remodeled in 1995 as part of the Port of Seattle's Bell Street Pier redevelopment. The section of the bridge over Alaskan Way as demolished and a stair/elevator tower incorporating a viewpoint was added. The bridge provides pedestrian access between the hillside and the waterfront. One of the Port's major goals in undertaking the Bell Street Pier project was to reestablish historical links between the waterfront and the city behind it-in this case the Pike Place Market. The Lenora Street Bridge helps to bring about this goal.

The bridge provides pedestrian access by stair r elevator to Alaskan Way, with access to the central waterfront including Bell Street Pier, the aquarium, ferries, the waterfront trolley, Waterfront Park, and Myrtle Edwards Park.

The viewpoint at the end of the bridge provides spectacular views of the waterfront, Elliott Bay, and the mountains on either side of Puget Sound

The boat moorage directly in front of the viewpoint was the location of Pier 64/65 and its warehouse. In 1980 the Port suspended opera- tions on Pier 64/65 because the pier and buildings were so dilapi- dated, and use of the bridge for access and parking was discontinued. At the end of 1983, the connection between the bridge and the building was torn down for safety reasons and the pier itself was demolished in 1987. Until the 1995 remodel, the bridge was often called "the bridge to nowhere.""

Height of Look-Out Tower in feet: 100.00 Difficulty: Opening times and fees: 24/7 Parking Area: Not Listed

Visit Instructions:
Please log only if you have been up there and you must include a photo of the scenic view from the top.

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