SEATTLE — For more than 50 years, the “ramps to nowhere” have stood in Seattle's Montlake neighborhood.
Starting Saturday, they're being torn down.
"Today, we are turning the ‘ramps to nowhere’ into a ’bridge to somewhere,’” announced Governor Jay Inslee.
The ramps with countless graffiti paintings are now considered to be hidden gems by some in Seattle, and plenty of people have taken the plunge from the ramps down to the waters below.
But they’re being torn down as part of the new 520 Floating Bridge project that should be finished by 2017.
The portion where the ramps are now will become part of the 520 West Approach Bridge.
Still, only half of the West Approach Bridge is currently funded. The entire project faces more than a $1 billion shortfall, and construction on the east portion from Bellevue to Medina has been largely completed.
Plans have already been made for the land once the ramps are torn down.
The Arboretum will reclaim the land and refurbish it with a $7.8 million project that includes a trail.
"It took five years of negotiating to get these agreed to be torn down. I am thrilled today," said Arboretum executive director Paige Miller.
The ramps stand as remnants of a planned R.H. Thomson Expressway that would have been a parallel highway to Interstate 5, stretching from Montlake to the Rainier Valley.
It was bitterly trounced by citizen vote in 1971.
"Ordinary citizens came to the doors and said, 'Oh yeah, that's a waste of money. That's not a good way for Seattle to enter the next decades,'" said onetime opponent Anna Rudd.
But still, she, like many, considers them quirky Seattle icons like the Fremont Troll or Post Alley gum wall.
Rudd says at least a portion should stand as a monument to citizens voting against roadway expansion.
"Why would we get rid of all of it? You know, maybe most of it, but some of it has to be moved to expand 520, but it all doesn't have to be taken away,” she said.
Want to talk about the news of the day? Watch free streaming video on the KIRO 7 mobile app and iPad app, and join us here on Facebook.