SHINE — It was 30 years ago Friday that hurricane-force winds sank the west half of the Hood Canal Bridge, and those who witnessed the aftermath of the catastrophe greeted it with disbelief, shock, fear and amazement. First opened 59 years ago in 1961, it was the second concrete floating bridge constructed in Washington. 1979 Sinking of The HOOD CANAL BRIDGE Kitsap Jefferson Counties WASHINGTON. We had high school sports, we had the University of Washington Huskies, Mariners, Seahawks.”. All rights reserved. “And so I answer the phone, and it’s Marge Pieratt. He told The Seattle Times, “I knew this was worse than any other storm we’d had. It was pretty crazy.”. Despite a lot of anxiety about the closure, others also recall the 1979 sinking of the Hood Canal Floating Bridge, which left the area isolated for three years before the new bridge opened. the vessel could be lifted with the incoming tide, Unger said. Hood Canal Bridge Windstorm Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017 - YouTube The Coast Guard says the 65-foot boat started taking on water Tuesday about 1.3 miles southwest of the Hood Canal Bridge. Myers and Tyner escaped from the bridge in Tyner’s truck, arriving on the west bank of Hood Canal shortly before the bridge sank. Make sure you have the WSDOT mobile app and check our winter driving webpage. (20) A review of the effects of the Hood Canal Bridge sinking, and the department of transportation's effort to provide interim transportation ser-vices for users of that corridor. Item Information. Jim MacDonald is retired now; he and his wife ultimately bought KONP, as well as Port Angeles station KAPY. (Zach Jablonski/Peninsula Daily News), Coast Guard: No one hurt, no diesel spilled. Since that time, it has b And WSDOT employee Chuck Myers did lose what sounds like a treasured possession in the Hood Canal Bridge sinking: his 1967 Plymouth that had been parked on one of the western pontoons. “There were just two people at the station, just myself and the news director,” MacDonald said. Eight people aboard the vessel Silver Lining, which began to sink … sinking of the Hood Canal Bridge on February 13, 1979 created the need for an additional 20 deck officer jobs within the System. All eight people who were on board were able to safely get into a dinghy and row to shore. The low tide was starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, and that was when the main pumping was going to occur, so (Washington State Archives). The steel anchor cables and bridals were removed.”. We had our local news at the top of every hour and local weather, we had all those kinds of things,” MacDonald said earlier this week, from his home in Anacortes. 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It was “a great old car,” Myers told The Seattle Times. Total cost of the 1.3 mile span was $25 million in 1961, or the equivalent of about $210 million in 2019 dollars. During the night, the bridge had withstood sustained winds of up to 85 mph (137 km/h) and gusts estimated at 120 mph (190 km/h), and finally succumbed at about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February 13. “I mean, we probably had it on the air, confirmed, within 15 minutes of the bridge going down,” MacDonald said. Or, you could just call your local radio station. For live updates: Visit the Hood Canal Bridge Area Traffic Alerts and Cameras page.. Why does WSDOT open the bridge for one boat which results in traffic backups? There was a small lube oil spill from the boat, said Andrea Unger, a member of the state Department of Ecology Spill Response Team. The bridge was 7,869 feet longin total, and the floating portion of the bridge was 6,521 feet. “It took them a few weeks before they got some ferry service across the canal. “As you might expect, they were in the throes of the whole thing, too, but they did confirm to us that a portion of the bridge had gone down, and they were still trying to figure out how much of the bridge had gone down, and all sorts of other things, because their office was going crazy.”. A few other WSDOT trucks weren’t so lucky; they went to the bottom of Hood Canal. At 7:30 p.m., they were sent back out when it was confirmed the boat had only partially sunk and was drifting with the current. POULSBO, Wash. — Eight people managed to escape to safety when their 65-foot boat began sinking near the Hood Canal Bridge Tuesday evening. 65-foot boat started sinking 1.3 miles SW of the Hood Canal Bridge. At 7,869 feet in length, it is the longest floating bridge in the world located in a saltwater tidal basin, and the fourth longest floating bridge overall. “And she said, ‘Yeah, [my sister] said that the bridge is gone.’ So I said, ‘Okay Marge, we’ll follow up on that.”. “So I get a phone call,” MacDonald said. The bridge was buffeted by high winds beginning late that Monday evening. Storms have the potential to close the SR 104 Hood Canal Bridge until weather conditions improve. In that storm, The Hood Canal Floating Bridge broke apart and sank to the bottom. Skip navigation Sign in. . The pontoons were also connected via steel cables to concrete anchors set into the bottom of Hood Canal. KONP in those years played “Adult Contemporary,” or music of the popular yet soft-rocking variety. Fortunately, nobody was injured or killed when the Hood Canal Bridge went down. The boat has 300 gallons of diesel and 12 gallons of oil on board. Aug. 18, 2002 Updated: March 12, 2011 11:15 a.m. Facebook Twitter Email. “There was sheening,” Read said. seriously?’” MacDonald said. Details about 1979 Sinking of The HOOD CANAL BRIDGE Kitsap Jefferson Counties WASHINGTON. The Hood Canal Bridge is a floating bridge in the northwest United States, located in western Washington. Tyner told The Seattle Times, “This storm was the worst for the swells, with the winds working against the tide. As of Wednesday afternoon, the boat was still resting in the shallows near the 300 block of North Beach Drive in Port Ludlow as the salvage team worked to patch the holes in the hull and pump the water off the vessel for it to regain buoyancy, Unger said. The “ONP” in the Port Angeles station’s call-letters stood for “Olympic National Park,” because the station’s founder, Charles Webster, had been a booster of the effort to create that park back in the 1930s. We’d had winds worse than this, and currents worse. The western portion of the original Hood Canal Bridge sank in a windstorm on February 13, 1979; the repaired bridge opened in 1982. The western highrise hinged down into the water, but stayed attached to the concrete approach to the west end of the bridge. The elevated concrete superstructure on the pontoons was broken into rubble so it would not interfere with the new pontoons and anchoring system; any rubble that would interfere with the anchoring system was removed. WSDOT employee Chuck Myers told The Seattle Times that he blamed a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy for not remaining at the west end of the bridge to keep vehicles from driving out onto the floating portion. Even though the tip had come from a trusted friend, Jim MacDonald knew couldn’t just go on the air from KONP with what was essentially a rumor. Those cars and that truck had been waiting for the bridge to reopen to vehicle traffic. The yacht “Silver Lining” was carrying eight people when it reportedly hit a submerged object and began to sink Tuesday, said Petty Officer 1st Class Levi Read of the Coast Guard. “We were an ABC affiliate, so we had ABC News. AD HOOD CANAL – A salvage crew is working to recover a 65-foot yacht that took on water near the Hood Canal Bridge Tuesday. “Ecology is always a concern until the vessel is out of the water,” Unger said. Courtesy Seattle Public Library (spl_pc_10004) Lacy V. Murrow Bridge sinking, Seattle, Mercer Island, November 25, 1990. And until they got that going the only way you could really get to Seattle was head on down the Hood Canal all the way down to Olympia through Shelton and back up I-5 or you could go to Bremerton and take a ferry to Seattle.”. “Salvages are never perfect, but it looks like it’s going well.”. Additional information about the Hood Canal Bridge is located on the Common Questions web page. These positions were under the jurisdiction of the Masters, Mates and Pilots’ Union. Roger Slade of TowBoatUS was dispatched by Jefferson County 9-1-1 at approximately 5:30 p.m. “We were told there was 300 gallons of diesel and 12 gallons of oil onboard the vessel.”. Courtesy WSDOT. MacDonald was working at KONP 1450 in Port Angeles. The floating pontoons on the west half of the bridge began taking on water and listing around 6:40 a.m. Around 7:15 am, the western section, including Pontoons A through M – each 360 feet long, broke loose, drifted slightly north, and then rolled over and sank to the bottom of Hood Canal. In November 1990, the 6,600-foot-long bridge, made of 22 floating bolted-together pontoons, was in the process of being converted from a two-way road to a one-way road. . Lake Washington Floating Bridge, ca. The Hood in the Panama Canal as it toured the world, pride of the Royal Navy. They sold both stations in 2002 and eventually relocated to Anacortes. It was Washington’s second floating bridge, coming 21 years after the Lacey V. Murrow Bridge carrying what is now I-90 across Lake Washington at Mercer Island, and two years before the Albert Rosellini Evergreen Point 520 Floating Bridge between Medina and Montlake. © 2021 Bonneville International. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. The Hood Canal Bridge, opened in 1961, connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas across Hood Canal of Puget Sound. However, newspaper accounts at the time say that four or five passenger cars and a semi-truck had barely made it off the west section of pontoons before the pontoons broke loose and sank. SHINE — No one was harmed after a 65-foot yacht partially sank near the Hood Canal Bridge in 80- to 90-foot-deep water. The yacht “Silver Lining” was carrying eight people when it reportedly hit a submerged object and began to sink Tuesday, said Petty Officer 1st Class Levi Read of the Coast Guard. Total cost of the new western section was $150 million or $390 million in 2019 dollars. SHINE — No one was harmed after a 65-foot yacht partially sank near the Hood Canal Bridge in 80- to 90-foot-deep water. Such review shall include: (a) An examina-tion of the need to relocate existing ferry terminals; (b) interim Early on the morning of February 13, 1979, KONP had its usual skeleton crew of two. And she tells me, she says, ‘You know, my sister lives above the Hood Canal Bridge, and she just called me and said the bridge has sunk.’”, “My first thought is, ‘No . The Coast Guard received the distress call at 3:30 p.m. And what happened to all the wreckage from the 1979 sinking? In the immediate aftermath of the bridge sinking, Jim MacDonald says KONP had to bring in extra people that day to help answer the phones. The Coast Guard says 8 people self-rescued from the boat's dinghy and made it safely to shore. WSDOT is following federal law.Under maritime rules, boats get the right-of-way over vehicles when bridges block the … “We broadcast a lot of sports, too. Little KONP in little Port Angeles had the scoop of the century, as far as any other story that would impact the Olympic Peninsula, before or since. There was no simple solution for where to send the average 6,000 vehicles per day that had crossed the span. Price: US $8.99. Minimum wage increase, protections for orcas among new laws taking effect in 2021, Puyallup Tribe sues Electron Dam owner over artificial turf pollution, Tacoma to end glass recycling pickup at homes starting next week, Sign up to receive the most popular email. Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies also responded to the incident Tuesday night. They closed the drawspan briefly around 2 a.m. to let a Puget Power crew cross, and then opened up the drawspan again. “It impacted everybody a lot,” Jim MacDonald said. It was the combination of factors. The Hood Canal Bridge had opened to vehicle traffic in 1961 after three years of construction. The yacht “Silver Lining” was carrying eight people when it … SHINE — No one was harmed after a 65-foot yacht partially sank near the Hood Canal Bridge in 80- to 90-foot-deep water. The semi truck driver, a man named Red Taylor, apparently had a difficult time backing his truck off the bridge, but he managed to do it, by all accounts, in barely the nick of time. “In fact, I don’t remember exactly how many, [but] we had to call people in to man the phones because everybody was calling the radio station to find out what was going on, even though we were [talking about] it on the air. Loading... We’ll stop supporting this browser soon. 65-foot boat sinking near Hood Canal Bridge | KATU Eight people managed to escape to safety when their 65-foot boat began sinking near the Hood Canal Bridge Tuesday evening. Today we drove over the Hood canal Bridge. In February 1979, Anne Murray topped the “AC” charts with “I Just Fall In Love Again.” A few weeks later, Poco’s “Crazy Love” would knock Murray out of first place. — The U.S. Coast Guard Seattle is at the scene of a 65-foot boat taking on water near the Hood Canal Bridge. Ferry service was eventually also offered between Edmonds and Port Townsend, and then the repaired bridge opened officially on Sunday, October 24, 1982, though traffic had been allowed across the day before. TowBoatUS and Global Diving and Salvage were hired by the vessel’s insurer to assist with the rescue, recovery and containment of the potential oil spills, said Read. Marge is a loyal listener and a friend of ours. Lucky-to-be-alive semi driver Red Taylor was one of the first to cross. No injuries or fatalities were reported in connection with the accident that resulted in an estimated $500,000 in property damage when Silver Lining, with eight people on board, struck an underwater rock formation, took on water and sank near the Hood Canal Bridge, Puget Sound, Wash. “When the news director got off the air, I told him about the call, and he called the Port Angeles detachment of the State Patrol,” MacDonald said. Qualified or nearly qualified IBU employees were encouraged by the WSF to take the actions necessary to fill these positions. The Hood Canal Bridge suffered catastrophic failure in 1979 during the February 13 windstorm. For instance, in 1979, the only way you could get 24-hour news updates was to have a Associated Press or United Press International teletype installed in your home. A family is trying to get back on their feet after their 65-foot yacht partially sank about 1.3 miles southwest of the Hood Canal Bridge in Jefferson County on Tuesday. High winds blew throughout the area, with downed trees and widespread power outages. The windstorm that sank the Hood Canal Bridge 40 years ago, The western portion of the original Hood Canal Bridge sank in a windstorm on February 13, 1979; the repaired bridge opened in 1982. Jim MacDonald was 31-year old radio announcer back in February 1979 when he took a phone call from a listener with news that changed the lives of thousands of people on the Olympic Peninsula for years. But we’d never had both at the same time.”, Another WSDOT staffer on duty that day was George Tyner. The operator of the 71-foot cabin cruiser Silver Lining grounded on a charted shoal known as the Sisters near Hood Canal Bridge with eight people aboard. On the night of Monday, February 12, 1979, the region was struck by a classic Puget Sound wind event. Capt. It does, particularly because only 11 years ago another regionally famous floating bridge broke up and sank in heavy weather. Editor’s note: Special thanks to Benjamin Helle of the Washington State Archives for assistance with images for this story. Despite the dry rot, and with the fleet suffering from capacity woes again, the ever-reliable Vashon was called upon to work. 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, Slade said. Around 6 a.m. on February 13, the wind was gusting from the south at over 100 mph. There were three points along the bridge where vessels could transit: One was at the center of the bridge Span's sinking in 1990 triggered a demand; next is Hood Canal Bridge. HistoryLink.org Photo by Priscilla Long Radio is a notoriously, shall we say, cost-conscious business, and radio people are used to making do with minimal resources. Global Diving and Salvage on Wednesday works to get the 65-foot yacht Silver Lining floating after it struck an unknown object and partially sank Tuesday night near the Hood Canal Bridge. “We got a lot of phone calls,” MacDonald said. No injuries or fatalities were reported in connection with the accident that resulted in an estimated $500,000 in property damage when the Silver Lining, with eight people on board, struck an underwater rock formation, took on water and sank near the Hood Canal Bridge, Puget Sound, Washington. “And at the time [when I got the call], the news director [whose name was Neal Clement] was doing the news from his studio, and I was answering the phone.”. Search. Eight people were onboard and safely made it to shore in a dinghy. It carries State Route 104 across Hood Canal of Puget Sound and connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. Using two tow vessels, they were able to tow it to shallow water by around A quick check with Claudia Bingham Baker of WSDOT on Tuesday confirmed that the agency has no plans to observe the 40th anniversary of the loss of the bridge. The State was scheduled to retire the 40-year-old vessel, but the sinking of the Hood Canal Bridge and delays in the delivery of the new Issaquah Class ferries kept the Vashon in service. Chuck Myers was a WSDOT employee on duty at the bridge that morning. 1940. Condition:--not specified. Today we drove over the Hood canal Bridge. Once the vessel is back on top of the water, the team will remove the diesel from the boat to prevent possibilities of leakage. Federal investigators determined a yacht sinking in Puget Sound that caused an estimated $500,000 in damage stemmed from faulty dead reckoning. Although the boat is out of deep water, Unger said there is still a risk to the local marine wildlife. Rebuilt Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge (right) and the new Homer M. Hadley Bridge across Lake Washington, October 2001. That is the first plan, and Unger said the salvage crew was confident it should work, if not, their team has air bags to also lift vessel with. “I don’t know if the vehicle was recovered,” Baker wrote. Coincidentally, the anniversary happens to be Friday the 13th. “I can tell you that we’ve not found any vehicles in any of the underwater surveys we’ve done since then.”. A low pressure system moved across the area just north of Puget Sound and essentially drained all the air from Western Washington like a massive bathtub. Around 11 p.m., Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews on the bridge closed it to vehicle traffic and opened the drawspan in the middle of the bridge to relieve pressure. On Tuesday, February 13, 1979, about 7 a.m., the western half of the Hood Canal Bridge sinks during a severe storm. On either side of the drawspan, the Hood Canal Floating Bridge (which is very similar to the original 1940 I-90 and 1963 520 floating bridges) consisted of a series of floating concrete pontoons connected to each other, and to a “highrise” at the west and east ends of the bridge. JUST IN: A 65-foot recreational boat is sinking 1.3 miles SW of the Hood Canal Bridge. 5 or at [email protected]. Baker said via email that “the bridge’s pontoons and concrete gravity anchors were left on the bottom of the canal. Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. Plus we were working with a low tide, so the anchor cables for the bridge were more slack, permitting more movement.”. But KONP, and pretty much every radio station back then, had more going out over the airwaves than just music. The original eastern half was replaced in 2009 for $500 million. For several hours before the Tuesday the 13th catastrophe, a storm has battered the bridge with winds of 80 miles per hour gusting to 120 miles per hour. Have an emergency kit in your vehicle and be aware of forecasts. When the team was en-route they were informed the boat had reportedly sunk already, so they returned to Port Hadlock, Slade said. It was his third radio job, after stints at KAAR in Yakima and KOMW in Omak. The Hood Canal Bridge connected the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Peninsula across the mouth of Hood Canal; prior to the bridge, a Washington State Ferry carried vehicles and passengers from Lofall on the Kitsap County side to South Point on the Jefferson County side. Of course, this was many years before online social media, when local radio functioned as a kind of analog, real-time social media and internet all rolled into one. But what became of Chuck Myers’ beloved 1967 Plymouth? The passengers were able to escape the vessel by boarding their dinghy and getting ashore, Read said. The sinking of the Hood in 1941 became one of the greatest British naval tragedies of all time And though there were no human casualties, the loss of the bridge deeply affected Jefferson County and Clallam County, and much of the northern portion of Olympic Peninsula. And the ferry service was basically a barge that was pushed across by a tugboat.

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