Then and Now: Greene Street Bridge

Two new bridges over the Spokane River were being discussed in 1955. One was Maple Street Bridge, a daring attempt to bridge the river gorge with an elevated span that would require $6 million in bonds for funding. The other was an upgrade to the bridge that carried Greene Street in east Spokane for many years.

The north-south street had a simple two-lane bridge , a 19-foot-wide "through truss" bridge constructed in 1917 from steel left over from the construction of the Monroe Street Bridge six years earlier. "Through truss" meant the roadbed rested on the bottom of a boxlike frame, a common bridge design.

The reuse of old bridges was common in early Spokane. The earliest Greene Street span was going to be reused at the city's Waterworks, where an earlier span was overloaded carrying three large water mains over the river on a bridge rated for only two pipes.

The growth of truck traffic between industrial east Spokane and the Hillyard area in the midcentury led the city to approve $50,000 toward a new bridge in 1941. In 1944, the City Council proposed banning heavy tanker trucks from using the narrow bridge. The replacement cost was estimated at $225,000 in 1947. In 1948, City Engineer Charles Davis said widening the 16-foot-wide bridge, still using wooden planking for the decking, was "one of the city's most urgent current projects."

A young mother and her infant son were killed in 1950 in a car crash at the bridge's south approach. Investigators said the slick wooden decking likely caused the accident. The bereaved young father sued the city, and Davis told the City Council a new bridge would be built as soon as possible at a cost of $275,000.

When ground was broken for the new bridge in 1954, cost s were estimated at $400,000 with federal funds covering just over half. The design was for a 56-food-wide roadway with two 6-foot sidewalks.

The new bridge was accompanied by widening Greene and Market streets.

Washington Gov. Arthur Langlie was on hand as the bridge was dedicated in July 1956, while the concrete and steel footings of the Maple Street Bridge were being laid in Peaceful Valley.

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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 8:02 AM.