Build This Bridge To Spokane’s Future Platform For Pride People Will Drink In The Sights From Its Viewpoints.

The rapids and falls at the heart of Spokane are a treasure. Around them we’ve built a beautiful park and a downtown that needs investment to stay healthy and attractive. Over them, of necessity, we have built bridges.

One of those - Post Street’s - has to be replaced. The bridge was built in 1917. Steel reinforcing it has rusted and chunks of concrete have rotted away. “Seats” where its vertical support beams meet the bridge deck have fallen off. As a result, heavy trucks and buses have been banished from the bridge.

Should the millions required to replace this bridge be spent on the current alignment? No. To keep the number of bridges to a minimum, we ought to make maximum use of each crossing.

That, and more, is what the Lincoln Street Bridge would do. It would begin on the north bank just where the old bridge begins. But instead of carrying traffic into Riverfront Park and the lightly used Post Street corridor, soon to be closed, the south end of the new bridge will connect with heavily traveled Lincoln Street.

The new bridge, higher and slimmer in design, will help handle traffic growth that the future will bring. Traffic backups caused by Lincoln’s contorted path through the city center will be relieved. The core will become more accessible for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Traffic lights and speed limits can make sure the bridge is not a raceway. Indeed, the bridge’s design anticipates sightseers and foot traffic from nearby hotel and residential developments. It will open new vistas of the gorge. Wide sidewalks and viewing platforms will overlook the falls to the west and east of the bridge. There will be a commuter lane for bicyclists.

On the route now taken by Post Street, cars will disappear and a new footbridge will carry the Centennial Trail across the upper falls (now hidden under Post Street). Riverfront Park will grow to the west, following the trail in a spectacular route above the falls.

This project, on which millions of dollars already have been spent, will be good for Spokane. Once it’s built, people will drink in the sights from its viewpoints, paint its contours in images of the city, use it daily and wonder why in the heck it was controversial.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see “Take into account our changed needs”

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board