[2] It carries State Route 104 across Hood Canal in Puget Sound and connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas.

The design and planning process for the Hood Canal Bridge took nearly a decade amid criticism from some engineers throughout that time.

At the time of the failure, the bridge had been closed to highway traffic and the tower crew had evacuated; no casualties resulted.

Efforts to repair the bridge began immediately and Washington Secretary of Transportation William A. Bulley secured a commitment of federal emergency relief money for the project.

[citation needed] The state's department of transportation attempted to mitigate the impact of the disaster by redirecting traffic to US Highway 101 to drive around the 50-mile (80 km) length of Hood Canal and by reestablishing the state ferry run between Lofall and South Point across the canal just south of the bridge.

This route had been discontinued after the 1961 bridge opening and the state needed to reacquire access to and restore operational conditions on both landings.

At that time, "there was no evidence of historic properties or cultural resources" (NEPA Re-evaluation Consultation, FHWA) and WSDOT was able to purchase the site and begin construction.

Within the first two weeks of construction, artifacts were found from an ancestral burial ground from an ancient village called Tse-whit-zen.

On August 14, 2006, WSDOT agreed to donate the site to the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, rebury all remains uncovered, and pay $2.5 million in damages.

[20] It is believed that this discovery may be documentation of the first time that Natives and non-Natives began to interact on this shore[citation needed].

On December 21, 2004, Governor Locke and Secretary MacDonald announced that WSDOT would stop pontoon and anchor construction at the Tse-whit-zen site in Port Angeles and begin searching for a more suitable place to build.

Completed pontoons were floated out of the graving dock in Tacoma and transported to Seattle for outfitting at Todd Shipyards.

The survey was in three stages: A video camera count of traffic on weekdays (Tuesday and Wednesday) and a weekend (Friday through Sunday) to estimate average volume; the use of that video to record license plate numbers for vehicle registration addresses to assess which communities would be most affected; and the mailing of a questionnaire to the registered owners of those vehicles seeking information on trip origin, destination, and purpose, and choice of travel alternatives during a bridge closure.