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Editor’s Note: This is a blog post from the Waterfront Seattle Program. The Waterfront Seattle Program is a collaboration between the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects and other Seattle departments including the Mayor’s Office, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Planning and Community Development, and Parks and Recreation.
The City of Seattle opened the new Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge connecting 1st Ave to the Colman Dock Ferry Terminal in November 2023. Following the opening, the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects continued working on final touches on the new bridge as well as removal of the temporary bridge. This work is now complete.


The final touches are now in place

When the new Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge opened to the public in November 2023, the pedestrian crossing had temporary railings and lighting in place while installation of the permanent handrail and lighting was completed. Now that construction of the new bridge is complete, it is illuminated by more than 275 lights from the handrails which extend along the length of the new bridge, and upward-facing lighting at the V-shaped columns that support the bridge structure.


This new bridge, located in the same footprint as the original timber bridge that carried workers over the railroad tracks in the 1900s, now breathes new life into the downtown waterfront. Historically, the bridge has served over 5 million people annually, making it one of the most-used bridges in the Pacific Northwest. Visitors and commuters can now enjoy a more pleasant connection on a bridge that is wider and better illuminated for generations to come.
At a glance, the new bridge:
- Is 193 feet long and 16 feet wide
- Includes 20 feet of vertical clearance from Alaskan Way below, which allows for trucks and other tall vehicles to pass below it
- Provides an interesting vantage point to enjoy elevated views of the new Waterfront Park, which is currently taking shape
See this fun facts one-pager for more details on the bridge and how it was built.
Removal of the temporary bridge structure also completed
With the new bridge open as of last November, Waterfront Seattle removed the temporary bridge installed in 2019 to help facilitate demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Five of the temporary bridge spans are being repurposed as part of the Puget Sound to Pacific trail system in Clallam County to help complete a regional trail that will ultimately connect to Seattle via ferry.
The removal of the temporary bridge spans included demolition of seven support columns, two of which were original column supports for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, making them the last visible pieces of the structure to be removed. Demolition of the support structures involved breaking the exterior concrete, cutting through reinforcing steel, digging up footings for each column and restoring the area. The temporary support columns, located on Alaskan Way, Columbia St, and Western Ave, were removed one at a time to mitigate impacts to the area. Removal of the columns was completed in January 2024.


This completes three out of four pedestrian bridge projects included in the Waterfront Seattle Program
The Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge is one of a long list of Waterfront Seattle’s East-West improvement projects, which seek to strengthen connections between downtown and the waterfront. Of note, the opening of the pedestrian bridge at Marion completes three out of four pedestrian bridges on the waterfront, with Union Street Pedestrian Bridge opening in December 2022, the Lenora Street Pedestrian Bridge opening in spring of 2023, and one of our most exciting projects, the Overlook Walk (which is more of an elevated park, but also serves as a pedestrian bridge across Alaskan Way), opening later this year.
Additional East-West connection projects are already under construction, with the latest one starting in early January 2024. The Pioneer Square East West Pedestrian Improvements project, an exciting project that will widen sidewalks, increase greenery, and help calm traffic on key streets within the Pioneer Square neighborhood. You can read more about these improvements in this SDOT Blog post.
To stay up to date on everything Waterfront, we encourage you to visit the website or follow Waterfront Seattle on X (Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook.
Learn more:
- Contact the Waterfront Seattle team at: info@waterfrontseattle.org or (206) 499-8040
- Visit the Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge project webpage: https://waterfrontseattle.org/waterfront-projects/marion-street-bridge
- Learn more about the Pioneer Square East West Pedestrian Improvements project
- View the Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge fun facts
- Find more information about repurposing the temporary bridge spans for the Puget Sound Trail System
- Sign up for email updates