(click to enlarge photos)
Published in The Seattle Times on-line on May 2, 2024
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on May 5, 2024
To open the Aurora Bridge, the president and a telegraph were key
By Jean Sherrard
One of Seattle’s most spectacular — and tumultuous — celebrations began with the presidential push of a historic telegraph key.
Studded with Yukon gold mined by prospector George Carmack, the key had first been pressed by William Howard Taft to open Seattle’s 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. On the day of our “Then” photo, Herbert Hoover’s finger hovered over the button in the other Washington, waiting for the appointed minute to arrive.
The six-lane George Washington Memorial Bridge, yet to acquire its Aurora Bridge moniker, stood empty on Feb. 22, 1932, the bicentennial of our first president’s birth, but thousands of eager celebrants waited at its north and south ends, waiting for the signal.
Among them were jubilant Fremont and Wallingford residents, who had lobbied for years for a north-south highway to bypass the oft-opening Fremont Bridge.
Representatives from Mexico and Canada also paid homage to this vital link in the Pacific Coast Highway chain. Washington Gov. Roland H. Hartley (1864-1952), though a longtime opponent of state highways (he once described them as “hard surface joy rides”), nevertheless prepared a lengthy speech extolling the hugely popular venture.
On Lake Union, 167 feet below, the fireboat Alki also waited, water cannons at the ready, while fieldpieces of the 146th Field Artillery were primed to release an ear-splitting volley.
Among the dignitaries, Caroline McGilvra Burke, widow of Judge Thomas Burke, prepared a time capsule to be sealed into the bridge containing messages from 1932 Seattleites to those 100 years in the future.
At precisely 2:57 p.m. Pacific time, Hoover poked the golden telegraph to kick things off. Almost instantly, trumpets blared, a 21-gun salute roared, streams of water arched into the air and a giant flag unfurled from above.
Interrupted mid-speech, a bloviating Hartley cried into his microphone, “The president has just pressed the key!” But his words were lost in the crowd’s huzzah.
With Canadian emissary Vancouver alderman W.H. Lembke, Hartley sawed through a 1-foot-wide, 68-foot-long Douglas fir (jokingly called a “ribbon” by the assembled) that extended across the bridge’s northern approach. Mexican consul W.P. Lawton enthusiastically squirted oil onto the crosscut blade.
The “ribbon” finally severed, a siren signaled that the bridge was open to foot traffic.
“Youngsters, galloping ahead, were the first to meet across the great span,” reported The Seattle Times. Soon, “the bridge was a black mass of citizens, joining and intermingling across its length and width.”
An estimated 20,000 people had gathered to mark its dedication.
In its final hurrah, the gold-studded presidential key was tapped by President John F. Kennedy to open the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.
WEB EXTRAS
For our narrated 360 video, shot on location, click HERE!
Also, here’s is Paul Dorpat’s original column on this topic from 24 years ago: 2000 06-11 N&T Aurora bridge
Again you share things I’ve never heard about.
Where is the amazing “gold key” now”
Last I heard, it was part of the Smithsonian’s collection. I don’t know if they currently have it on display though.
Once talked to someone who, after being in a collision on the bridge and having been knocked clear off same mid-span, landed on the roof of an apartment building. Surviving the wreck and the fall, he bought another Toyota truck.