Evergreen Point Floating Bridge

Traffic on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge at night, looking west.
Official name	Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge--Evergreen Point
Carries	4 lanes of WA 520
Crosses	Lake Washington
Locale	Seattle, WA to Medina, WA
Maintained by	Washington State Department of Transportation
Design	Pontoon bridge[1] with movable midsections
Total length	7,578 ft (2,310 m)[1]
Opening date	August 28, 1963

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, officially the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge—Evergreen Point, is the longest floating bridge in the world at 7,578 feet (2,310 meters).^[1] It carries Washington State Route 520 across Lake Washington from Seattle to Medina and is often called the "520 bridge" by locals.^[1] Microsoft programmers often call it the "Evergreen Floating Point Bridge", a pun based on a term for numbers with decimal points often used in computers. Image File history File linksMetadata Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bridge. ... Albert Dean Rosellini (born January 21, 1910) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Washington. ... Washington State Route 520 is a freeway in the state of Washington, U.S.A. It extends 14 miles from Seattle in the west to Redmond in the east. ... Lake Washington is the second largest natural lake in Washington state, USA, behind Lake Chelan, and the largest lake in King County. ... Nickname: The Emerald City Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King County Incorporated December 2 1869 Mayor Greg Nickels Area    - City 369. ... Medina is a city located in King County, Washington, on the eastern shore of Lake Washington opposite Seattle. ... The Washington State Department of Transportation, or WSDOT, led by a Secretary and overseen by the Governor, is a Washington governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of the states transportation infrastructure. ... Pontoon bridge across the James River at Richmond, Virginia, 1865. ... A foot (plural: feet) is any of several old units of distance or length, measuring around a quarter to a third of a meter. ... The metre, or meter (US), is a measure of length. ... August 28 is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... Albert Dean Rosellini (born January 21, 1910) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Washington. ... A pontoon bridge Pontoon bridges are floating bridges supported by floating pontoons with sufficient buoyancy to support the bridge and dynamic loads. ... Washington State Route 520 is a freeway in the state of Washington, U.S.A. It extends 14 miles from Seattle in the west to Redmond in the east. ... Lake Washington is the second largest natural lake in Washington state, USA, behind Lake Chelan, and the largest lake in King County. ... Nickname: The Emerald City Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King County Incorporated December 2 1869 Mayor Greg Nickels Area    - City 369. ... Medina is a city located in King County, Washington, on the eastern shore of Lake Washington opposite Seattle. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... A floating-point number is a digital representation for a number in a certain subset of the rational numbers, and is often used to approximate an arbitrary real number on a computer. ... It has been suggested that dajare be merged into this article or section. ...

It was built as a four-lane toll bridge in 1963 to provide easy access from Seattle to Eastside communities such as Bellevue, Kirkland, and Redmond. It was the second bridge to cross Lake Washington, the first being the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, built in 1940 as part of US Hwy 10, later part of Interstate 90, which at its construction was the largest floating structure ever built. Tolls were lifted from the Evergreen Point Bridge in 1979, and the wide area where tolls were collected is now used for bus stops. In 1988 the bridge was named for Rosellini, who had pushed for its construction. Paying toll on passing a bridge. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... The Eastside is the collective term for the eastern suburbs of Seattle, Washington. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Nickname: The Little City That Could Location of Kirkland within King County, Washington, and King County within Washington. ... Official website: http://www. ... Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge (right), looking east toward Mercer Island The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge is the second longest floating bridge in the world, at 6,620 feet (2,019 meters). ... Interstate 90 (abbreviated I-90) is the longest interstate highway in the United States at nearly 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Commuters often follow the motto "anything but the 520 bridge" during peak traffic, with I-90 or even a northbound loop around the lake via Bothell and Kenmore preferred as alternate routes into Seattle. Because Microsoft, one of the area's largest employers, is on the Eastside just off 520, traffic on the bridge tends to be heaviest west-to-east (away from Seattle) in the morning and east-to-west (toward Seattle) in the evening, backward from what one might expect. (The I-90 floating bridge has more typical traffic patterns, with commuters going into Seattle in the morning and returning east in the evening.) Commuters often use this knowledge to take the bridge with the least traffic for their desired trip at various times of day. Electronic signs on I-405 display estimated times to Seattle for both 520 and I-90 routes. Bothell is a city located in the state of Washington. ... Kenmore, occasionally known as Kenmore by the Lake, is a city in the United States located on the north shore of Lake Washington in King County, Washington. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ...

Scenery visible westbound on clear days include the Olympic Mountains and Husky Stadium on the University of Washington campus, as well as two metal sculptures. Eastbound are expensive waterfront homes in Medina, including the large home of Bill Gates on the southern side, which is extensively lit in the holiday season. On clear days, Mount Baker is visible to the north, the Cascade Mountains are the backdrop, and Mount Rainier is to the southeast. Mercer Island is to the south. The bridge is closed along with I-90 when the Blue Angels perform during Seafair. On July 4, fireworks are visible from many communities and homes along the lake. The Olympic Mountains The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington in the United States. ... For the home field of Northern Illinois University, see Huskie Stadium. ... The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. ... Medina is a city located in King County, Washington, on the eastern shore of Lake Washington opposite Seattle. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. ... Mount Baker (elevation 10,778 feet, 3,285 m) is a glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascades of Washington State in the United States about 30 miles (50km) due east of the city of Bellingham, Whatcom County. ... Mount Adams in Washington state The Cascade Range is a mountainous region famous for its chain of tall volcanos called the High Cascades that run north-south along the west coast of North America from British Columbia to the Shasta Cascade area of northern California. ... Mount Rainier is a composite volcano in Pierce County, Washington, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. ... Mercer Island is a city located in King County, Washington. ... The Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornets fly in tight diamond formation, maintaining 18 wingtip-to-canopy separation. ... Seafair is a summer festival in Seattle, Washington, USA that encompasses a wide variety of small neighborhood events leading up to several major city-wide celebrations. ... In the United States, Independence Day (commonly known as the Fourth of July or simply the Fourth) is a federal holiday celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. ...

The bridge incorporates an infrequently-used drawspan to allow large vessels to pass. (Smaller vessels can pass under "high rises" -- elevated portions of the bridge -- at either end.) It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Bascule bridge. ...

In 2000, a barge (whose captain was dozing at the wheel) struck the bridge, closing it for eleven days and causing $500,000 worth of damage. In 1989, an electrical fault caused the drawbridge to open during rush hour, causing one death and five injuries.

Today the bridge is near the end of its useful life, according to the state Department of Transportation. The bridge must be closed in high winds, and even after a seismic retrofit in 1999, it is at risk of collapse in an earthquake. Due to the weight of various reinforcements over the years, the bridge currently rides about a foot lower in the water than it did originally. The DOT is looking at replacing the aging bridge with a new span of four to eight lanes.^[2] The Washington State Department of Transportation, or WSDOT, led by a Secretary and overseen by the Governor, is a Washington governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of the states transportation infrastructure. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Old Farts by the Sometimes-United Nations. ...

The bridge is anchored by a large number of high-strength cables. According to an interview conducted by local newspapers, a severe storm during the bridge's lifespan came within strands of breaking some of these cables, which would have resulted in the catastrophic collapse of the bridge. Since then, additional cables have been added, and much of the bridge has been replaced with lighter materials, but the danger remains. The bridge was originally designed to stand up to a 100-year storm, but the assumptions used actually reflected what is now considered to be a 20-year storm for the Seattle area.

External links

• Bridge camera (includes some weather data)
• Department of Transportation photo gallery
• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 47.64051° -122.26019°
  • Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...

References