Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

With a crash of glass on concrete, the nation’s longest concrete span officially opened in Spokane.

It was the new Monroe Street Bridge, opened for traffic after what the paper called “many vicissitudes.” Those vicissitudes included the firing of the city engineer midproject, a windstorm that caused long delays and a casualty toll that included one worker dead and at least six injured.

Yet Mayor J.W. Hindley was in no mood to dwell on the negative.

“The Monroe Street Bridge by many has been called the bridge of sighs, but to me, and to all public-spirited citizens, it is nothing but the bridge of size,” he said in the dedication ceremony.

At 281 feet, it was in fact the largest concrete span in the U.S. It was designed by city engineer John Chester Ralston – the same engineer fired “for incompetence” halfway through – and featured elaborate ornamentation by Kirtland Cutter and Karl Malmgren.

About 3,000 people gathered for the dedication ceremonies. Miss Hazel Coates, daughter of a city commissioner, broke a bottle of “pure spring water” onto one of the “concrete kiosks.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1980: Some 2,600 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.