The Southway Bridge is a highway bridge spanning the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

between Clarkston, Washington, and

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's north central region. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene, and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is ...

. It connects Fleshman Way in Clarkston with Bryden Canyon Road in Lewiston, and provides residents of the Lewiston Orchards with access to State Route 129, as well as providing Clarkston residents with access to the

Lewiston–Nez Perce County Airport Lewiston–Nez Perce County Airport is in Lewiston, Idaho, United States. Owned by the city and Nez Perce County, it is in an elevated area south of downtown, approximately above the rivers. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems fo ...

. The bridge was opened to traffic on August 3, 1982, at a cost of $21 million, after several delays due to repairs. The Bryden County Road project linking the bridge to the Lewiston Orchards was completed in 1999. The bridge was built to supplement the

Interstate Highway Bridge The Interstate Highway Bridge crosses the Snake River, between Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho. The bridge carries U.S. Route 12 (US 12) across the state line between Washington and Idaho. It was built in 1939. The bridge was ...

(nicknamed the "Blue Bridge") to the north, which was sometimes closed to traffic while the bridge was raised to allow large boats to cross underneath.

Funding

A bill to fund the bridge (titled "''S. 3563. A bill to authorize the construction of a highway bridge across the Snake River between Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho")'' was introduced in June 1974 by Senators Warren Magnuson,

Henry M. Jackson Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson (May 31, 1912 – September 1, 1983) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. representative (1941–1953) and U.S. senator (1953–1983) from the state of Washington. A Cold War liberal and anti- ...

Frank Church Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was an Americans, American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Idah ...

. and James McClure. In the senators' testimony, they cited the inadequacy of the

for the modern vehicular traffic of the time, and shared concerns about the creation of the new reservoir in the coming years (created by the

Lower Granite Dam Lower Granite Lock and Dam is a concrete gravity Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity, run-of-the-river dam in the northwest United States. On the lower Snake River in southeastern Washington (state), Washington, it bridges Whitman County, Washington, ...

) which would result in traffic delays due to increased boat traffic under the bridge requiring the raising of the 1939 bridge. The Lower Granite Dam was completed in 1975, creating a reservoir ( Lower Granite Lake) that extended through the

Lewiston–Clarkston metropolitan area The Lewiston–Clarkston metropolitan area—colloquially referred to as the Lewiston–Clarkston Valley or Lewis–Clark Valley (often abbreviated as LC Valley), and officially known as the Lewiston, ID–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area—i ...

, raising the surfaces of the

and Clearwater River to above sea level.

References

Bridges over the Snake River {{Idaho-bridge-struct-stub