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Waterfront Seattle | Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge construction is complete, providing a key connection for people walking and rolling between downtown and Colman Dock

by on March 7, 2024

Blog stats: 950 words | 5-minute read

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.

People walk across a bridge in front of a large building on a partly sunny and partly cloudy day.
People walk towards downtown Seattle from Colman Dock on the new Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge.
A large group of people smile while facing the camera in front of a bridge and large buildings in the background.
Deputy Mayor Adiam Emery and the Director of the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects, Angela Brady, celebrate with the project team  for reaching completion of the Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge in late-February.

The final touches are now in place

A group of people stand in front of a large orange ribbon. A woman in the middle prepares to cut the ribbon.
Deputy Mayor Adiam Emery and the Director of the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects, Angela Brady, celebrate with the project team by cutting the ribbon to commemorate the completion of the Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge in late-February.

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.

A handrail and lighting on a bridge on a foggy day with large buildings and cars in the background.
 Handrail lighting provides better visibility at night and on foggy days like the one shown here.
A bridge above a street with orange and purple lights illuminated. People work on a utility box below the bridge.
The lights under the bridge will stay neutral on most days but can change colors during special occasions.

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.

Video of the temporary bridge spans on Western Ave and Columbia St being removed over a stormy weekend in November 2023, days prior to opening the new bridge.

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.

Large construction equipment being used to remove a column next to a street, with large buildings in the background.
Removal of the column located at Alaskan Way and Columbia St; steel rebar is cut after the exterior concrete has been removed.
Heavy construction equipment being used to remove a column in a work area. Large buildings are in the background.
Removal of the column located at Alaskan Way and Columbia St; steel rebar is cut after the exterior concrete has been removed.

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.

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Filed Under: Accessibility, Pedestrians, SDOT, Traffic and Construction Tagged With: , , , , , ,