George Sellar Bridge

The Senator George Sellar Bridge at Wenatchee, Washington was built in 1950 to carry U.S. Route 2 across the Columbia River. The steel suspended tied-arch bridge has a main span of 480 feet (150 m) with 224-foot (68 m) anchor arms. The suspended portion of roadway comprises 352 feet (107 m) and is 54 feet (16 m) wide, carrying five lanes (originally four) with a median divider strip at a height of 180 feet (55 m) above mean water level. The 1950 bridge replaced the nearby Columbia River Bridge built in 1908. The new bridge was recognized by the American Institute of Steel Construction as the most beautiful bridge of 1950 for spans over 400 feet (120 m) in length.

The bridge's engineer was R. W. Finke. The contractor was the General Construction Company of Seattle, using steel fabricated by the American Bridge Company. The bridge rests on two concrete piers in the river, with the central arch between them, and cantilever spans extending to concrete abutments high on the riverbanks. Now named the Senator George Sellar Bridge after a Washington state senator, the bridge carries Washington State Route 285 since the construction of the Richard Odabashian Bridge for Route 2 farther north. An additional lane was added in 2009–2010. The bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 24, 1995.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Senator George Sellar Bridge" and modified on March 30, 2021 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.