Food & Culture
This Forgotten Bridge Once Made an Important Connection
Leschi Bridge was once an essential route for Seattle settlers
By Eva Seelye September 28, 2016
This article originally appeared in the October 2016 issue of Seattle Magazine.
You’ve likely stumbled upon it, nearly concealed beneath the brush in Leschi Park, just south of Madrona, and dismissed it as another old, forgotten bridge.
But Leschi Bridge, named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe, was once part of a route that played a vital role in Seattle transportation, linking settlers along Lake Washington to what is now Pioneer Square. Originally, the route was a trail created by the early Nisqually tribe, and later was used as a logging road by white settlers. Eventually, the Seattle Railroad Company decided the trail was an ideal site for a cable car bridge, which it completed in 1884.
The steam-powered cable cars, appointed with stained glass and oil lamps, significantly decreased travel time from Lake Washington to downtown Seattle by transiting the original trail’s rough terrain and forest-covered ravines via the bridge’s high trestles. A portion of Leschi Bridge still arches over Lake Washington Boulevard; walkers use it to connect to nearby neighborhoods.
Sadly, the cable cars are no longer with us.
Join The Must List
Sign up and get Seattle's best events delivered to your inbox every week.
Follow Us
Arts: Seattle’s Rap Party
The sound that is now defining Seattle
Seattle has never wanted to be cool — and that’s precisely what makes it so. When the grunge movement of the ’90s sprung to the forefront of mainstream American culture, Kurt Cobain’s ripped jeans and thrifted cardigans did so in direct opposition to perfectly over-tweezed eyebrows and super-synchronized boy bands. As Clark Humphrey writes in…
Book: A tribute to Northwest Films
New book details a thriving, rich film culture
David Schmader lives in El Paso, Texas, now, but he’s no stranger to Pacific Northwest culture. Schmader is a former staff writer and editor at Seattle alt publication The Stranger, where he wrote the popular column, “Last Days: The Week in Review” for 18 years. He is also a performer, and his solo plays were…
What this year’s Seattle-based SIFF films say about our changing city
Seattle may have parted from grunge, but self-expression in spite of convention remains a local state of mind
Seattle may change, but at its core, it will always be that angsty 90’s kid. This year’s Seattle International Film Festival’s (SIFF) lineup of Northwest-centered films presents a reflection of our city from past to present. Over the years, the ongoing conversations about the changing face of Seattle have permeated all industries from tech to…
Arts: Seattle’s Architect of Light
Italian-born artist Iole Alessandrini explores the beauty and emotional impact of working with light
How many colors do you see?” Artist and architect Iole Alessandrini asks me this on a cold, windy evening in late February. We’re sitting in an attic-like nook in her apartment at West Seattle’s Cooper Artist Housing, a 36-unit former school that has been transformed into an affordable live/work space specifically for artists. I’m looking…