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Show Floating Span Pays for Self "Impossible" Bridge Is 7,800 Feet Long SEATTLE, WASH. After 20 years of arguing, a year and a half of building and nine years of toll collecting, the only floating bridge in the United States has been paid for 19 years ahead of schedule. Seattle has one of the world's four civilian pontoon bridges because be-cause an irate young man missed "a ferry in 1919. As he watched the ferry paddle across Lake Washington Washing-ton toward Mercer island, little more than a mile away, Homer M. Hadley, a young structural engineer, engi-neer, decided he had missed the boat for the last time. He would build a bridge. He found that he had chosen the world's worst bridge site. A lake depth of 150 to 200 feet underlaid with 100 feet of mud made the cost of a fixed bridge enormous. But Hadley continued to study the lake, and a few months later he had the bridge built on paper. The initial reaction to his floating float-ing bridge plan was definitely not favorable. People said it would hamper ham-per ship traffic and mar the city's beauty. Hadley continued to show his plans to various civic organizations. organiza-tions. Impressed by the logic and economy of his suggestions, they launched a "build a bridge" campaign cam-paign that eventually had the entire en-tire state in an uproar. To settle the dispute, a state toll bridge authority was created to study all methods of bridging the lake. After months of research, the board presented a solution incorporating incor-porating virtually all of Hadley's ideas, and in 1939, construction ol the unique structure be?an. |