The Jose Rizal Bridge carries 12th Avenue South over South Dearborn Street and
Interstate 90
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...
in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, connecting the
International District to
Beacon Hill. Built in 1911, and originally called the 12th Avenue South Bridge or the Dearborn Street Bridge, it was one of the first permanent steel bridges in Seattle.
It was renamed in honor of the Filipino patriot
José Rizal
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered the national he ...
in 1974, though the official name is not well known by Seattleites. The bridge was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1982,
under its original name.
As a result of
Paul Schell
Paul E. S. Schell (born Paul Ervin Schlachtenhaufen; October 8, 1937 – July 27, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 50th mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1998 to 2002.
Early life and education
The oldest of six chi ...
's attempt to light several bridges for the Seattle Millennium Project, the bridge is illuminated by floodlights.
In 2002, a
police informant
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...
was found murdered near a homeless encampment under the bridge.
The bridge originally carried four lanes of traffic until 2021, when they were reduced to two lanes to accommodate a set of
protected bicycle lane
A cycle track, separated bike lane or protected bike lane (sometimes historically referred to as a sidepath) is an exclusive bikeway that has elements of a separated path and on-road bike lane. A cycle track is located within or next to the r ...
s.
See also
*
List of Seattle bridges
The city of Seattle, Washington, United States, has multiple bridges that are significant due to their function, historical status, or engineering. Bridges are needed to cross the city's waterways and hilly topography. Twelve bridges have been ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Seattle
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Seattle, Washington.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in the city of Seattle, Washington, U ...
References
External links
*
1911 establishments in Washington (state)
Bridges completed in 1911
Bridges in Seattle
National Register of Historic Places in Seattle
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state)
Steel bridges in the United States
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