Photographs courtesy of Sue Roth, copyright 2001 Sue Roth.  Not for reproduction
 

Photo 1.  The Magnolia Bridge extends across the Interbay area of Seattle from Queen Anne Hill on the east to Magnolia Hill on the west.  The bridge was built in 1929?, with its footing in water saturated dredge spoils sitting on top of mud and sand.  The bridge was seismically retrofitted in the early 90's (?); you can see the pale blue gray reinforcements in the upper back left of the photo.  In the foreground, some serious damage to a beam.  Note the rusted rebar exposed where the concrete has spalled off; uh oh.

Photo 2.  Close up of cracked cross beam.

Photo 3.  Looking up at concrete spalled off of a cross beam with more rusted rebar exposed.  Note the greenish gray seismic retrofit.

Photo 4.  Closeup of cracked pillar and spalled off concrete exposing rusted and bent rebar.  YOW.  This bridge is doomed.

Photo 5.  Concrete debris that fell from the bottom of the bridge.  Fortunately, none of the people working under the bridge were hit.

The Magnolia Bridge was closed a couple of hours after the quake, and is still closed.  Officials have said "6 months" to reopen, which means a high probability that the bridge will be torn down and rebuilt, reopening in a year or two.

The Magnolia Bridge was also closed for several months in 1997 after a landslide off of the Magnolia Bluff took out some of the pillars and seismic retrofit.  An active landslide off of Queen Anne Hill also threatens the east end of the bridge.