West Spokane Street Bridge collision

At 2:38 a.m. on June 11, 1978, the freighter Antonio Chavez rammed the West Spokane Street Bridge, thereby closing it to automobile traffic for the next six years.

Federal highway administrator Norbert Tiemann remarked, "Short of knocking it down, there is nothing else.

The Chavez was 550 feet (170 m) long and was carrying 20,000 tons of gypsum under the command of 80-year-old Puget Sound Pilot Rolf Neslund (1897–1980) and its master, Gojko Gospodnetic, when, just before dawn, it struck the east end of the bridge.

In 1980, after several years of a deteriorating domestic relationship characterized by alcoholism and violent conflict, Neslund disappeared.

Police alleged that in an argument over pension money, Rolf's wife, Ruth Neslund, shot and killed her husband on August 8, 1980, burning his remains at their home on Lopez Island.

She died of natural causes at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in February 1993.

Senator Warren G. Magnuson (1905–1989) to secure federal funds and the participation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as project manager for the high-level bridge.