TACOMA, Wash. — The Fishing Wars Memorial Crossing will be closed to all traffic indefinitely while it is inspected following a federal agency's recommendation.
The Federal Highway Administration recommended the city close the bridge until "all non-redundant steel tension members and connections are cleaned of dirt and debris, a complete inspection is conducted, the inspection results are analyzed, and the load rating is updated if required."
The most recent load rating from 2019, according to the city, cannot be considered complete due to the "unknown condition of the non-redundant steel tension members and connections."
The bridge, formally known as the Puyallup River Bridge, links Tacoma and Fife. It first opened in 1927 as one of Washington’s last segments of the famous Pacific Highway, now known as Highway 99.
When Interstate 5 opened back in December 1960, the bridge lost much of its daily traffic.
The bridge was renamed Fishing Wars Memorial Bridge, or yabuk’wali, meaning “place of a fight,” and was a collaborative effort between the Puyallup Tribe and the City of Tacoma. It promotes the revitalization of the Twulshootseed language and commemorates a meaningful tribal connection to Tacoma.
“Naming this bridge after the Fishing Wars will help future generations know what happened here,” David Z. Bean, then-Puyallup Tribal Council chairman, told the Puyallup Tribal News in 2019. “But it is also symbolic of bridging our past with our present and our future, and of bridging our communities.”