Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Kittie Crowley, a familiar face in police court due to her well-known taste for liquor, told Justice Fred Witt that she thought it was time to swear off booze. She even told the court that she would make the pledge in front of a priest, to give it added impact.

The judge sentenced her to six months in jail but suspended it on the condition that she uphold that pledge.

Kittie told the judge that liquor was the cause of all of her problems.

“Well, ye see, judge,” she said, “… When you have a quart of whisky and a quart of gin and five bottles of beer and then smoke cigarettes afterward, yer sure to git in trouble. I think it’s about time I’m swearing off. I’m 47 years old.”

From the auto beat: A grand ceremony was being planned to dedicate the Sunset Highway, the “first good road across the Cascades in Washington.”

Gov. Ernest Lister was scheduled to be the principal speaker at the event on Snoqualmie Pass, the high point of the highway. The eastern end of the highway was in Spokane, and the name Sunset Highway still survives on this part of the route.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1940: The original Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened to traffic despite concerns over its tendency to “bounce” in windy conditions, inspiring the nickname “Galloping Gertie.” (The main section collapsed four months later.)