This aerial view shows the initial construction phase of the Tacoma-Seattle-Everett Freeway that was to become Interstate 5 (I-5). Bridge piers stand on either side of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The University Bridge sits to the right of the new piers, which were used to construct a 4,429-foot-long bridge completed in fall 1961.

Construction of the Tacoma-Seattle-Everett freeway, which opened to traffic in December 1962, took up 6,600 parcels of land, 4,500 of them in Seattle. In 1958-59, the Washington State Highway Department paid homeowners fair market value for their homes, then auctioned the buildings for either removal or salvage. The 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act kicked off the Interstate construction program. Completed in the 1960s, I-5 is the only Interstate highway running from Canada to Mexico.

Handwritten on sleeve: HIGHWAYS, Freeway, Seattle, right-of-way, airviews, including bridge site.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): February 3, 1959.

Caption information source: P-I research files; "Building Washington: A History of Washington State Public Works," by Paul Dorpat and Genevieve McCoy, 1998.