Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: the old Highway 10, 1973

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(Click and click again to enlarge photos)

With screen grabs of Mark Tyrrell’s 1973 film and “Now” photos from Feb. 26, 2025, here are four “Then” and “Now” comparisons as laid out for the Seattle Times print edition on March 30, 2025. To see larger representations of six “Then” and “Now” comparisons, scroll down!

Published in The Seattle Times online on March 27, 2025
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on March 30, 2025

A 36-second thrill ride immerses us in a 1973 route to Seattle
By Clay Eals
THEN: Mark Tyrrell, with cat in July 1979. (Clay Eals)

Homemade time capsules can be uniquely evocative. This I know from the creativity of a long-ago best friend.

Seattle native Mark Tyrrell, a buddy starting when we both were 5 and growing up on Mercer Island, had an offbeat and entertaining affection for our regional milieu, revealing it in unexpected ways.

NOW: Mark Tyrrell’s dad, Frank, bought this Ampro Eight 350 camera in the early 1950s. Mark used it to create his 36-second mini-travelogue in 1973. (Clay Eals)

In the early 1950s, the vortex of the baby boom and long before seemingly everything was digital, our fathers purchased home-movie cameras, captured soundless 8mm vignettes of family events and regularly screened them for us.

At age 22, as shown in this video and in “then” screen grabs (below), Mark took this pastime to the next level.

With his dad’s two-lens Ampro Eight 350 camera — and its “Accurator” viewfinder, with adjustments for light and frames per second — he fashioned a fast-motion film in 1973 that documented the west end of U.S. Highway 10 before completion of its successor, Interstate 90.

In an impossibly swift 36 seconds for a real-time 9-minute journey, his rollicking, windshield’s-eye footage covered 7.2 miles, from Mercer Island’s forested Gallagher Hill Road to the James Street exit of Interstate 5. It’s a westbound thrill ride both startling and smile-inducing, especially for those of us who recall the route.

Therein, coming alive on grainy, color celluloid are many sights that evaporated decades ago, including:

  • The thoroughfare at ground level, instead of elevated, sunken in a trench or covered by a concrete “lid.”
  • The prominent TraveLodge motel in the Mercer Island business district. (During childhood, I’m embarrassed to say that I took its sign too literally and mistakenly called it the “Trave Lodge.”)
  • The Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge, just two lanes each way. Built in 1940 across Lake Washington with a 40 mph speed limit, it featured a midway water pocket for large-boat openings but also a dangerous “bulge” for cars and trucks to navigate.
  • The bridge’s equally perilous reversible lanes, with red “X” and green arrow markers that switched during rush hours. Unsafe as well: abrupt pre-tunnel entry and exit turns.
  • A pullout lane near Rainier Avenue for crossing against full-tilt traffic (!) to a ramped shortcut to Beacon Hill. (My brother, Doug, recalls a similarly dangerous cross-traffic turn opportunity to reach the upper Shorewood apartments on Mercer Island.)
  • A come-to-a-halt stoplight at Dearborn, near Goodwill, on the way to Interstate 5.
  • The isolation of downtown’s then-tallest tower, the 1969 Seafirst Building (now Safeco Plaza), “the box the Space Needle came in.”

Sadly, Mark died way too early, at age 46, of myelodysplasia after a dozen years of multiple sclerosis. But his breathtaking mini-travelogue and other filmed and written pieces survive for us to ponder and enjoy.

Today, what Seattle sites do our smartphones and dash-cams record that soon will vanish?

WEB EXTRAS

Big thanks to Howard Lev for his invaluable chauffeuring assistance with this installment!

To see Jean Sherrard’s 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect through an automotive sunroof and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

Below, you also will find 6 “Then” and “Now” comparisons from the route, a high-school paper on Interstate 90, and a children’s book illustration of the infamous floating-bridge “bulge.”

You can see many other vintage Washington state highway videos at this YouTube channel.

Also below, look for another fast-motion video by Mark Tyrrell from 1972 (of him changing the readerboard at Look’s Pharmacy on Mercer Island) and a booklet of Mark’s writings, prepared by Clay for a gathering of friends following Mark’s death in 1997.

COMPARISON 1

THEN: Cars head west across the north end of Mercer Island in 1973. At left in the low-rise business district is the TraveLodge motel. (Mark Tyrrell)
NOW: The Mercer Island business district, out of frame at left, long ago outgrew its once-low-rise status. Even so, only a transit station is visible from the trenched Interstate 90. The TraveLodge motel closed after the turn of the millennium. (Clay Eals)

COMPARISON 2

THEN: The notorious reversible-lane markers (red “X” and green arrow) appear on an overpass (site of an early toll plaza) in 1973, just east of the floating bridge. (Mark Tyrrell)
NOW: Where an overpass once crossed the bridge approach on northern Mercer Island is now the west end of a lidded tunnel. (Clay Eals)

COMPARISON 3

THEN: Mark Tyrrell’s car heads westbound beneath the east arch of the four-lane Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge crossing Lake Washington from Mercer Island. In the distance are the span’s large-boat opening and dangerous traffic “bulge.” (Mark Tyrrell)
NOW: A portion of the east arch is visible at left while driving westbound on the once-solitary floating bridge. Today’s pair of Interstate 90 expanded spans formally opened in 1993 after a 1990 disaster sank the original bridge. Gone are the former mid-span large-boat crossing and dangerous traffic “bulge.” (Clay Eals)

COMPARISON 4

THEN: Cars tip slightly rightward as they speed around the bridge’s mid-span “bulge” in 1973. (Mark Tyrrell)
NOW: The middle of the two-span bridge is a straight shot today, with no “bulge” for vehicles to negotiate. Visible are transit workers preparing a light-rail path between the spans. (Clay Eals)

COMPARISON 5

THEN: Near Rainier Avenue in 1973, an eastbound bus nears a pullout lane for westbound vehicles seeking to cross speedy eastbound traffic to a ramped shortcut to Beacon Hill. (Mark Tyrrell)
NOW: Today there is no pullout lane to cross Interstate 90 to Beacon Hill. (Clay Eals)

COMPARISON 6

THEN: The 1969 Seafirst Building is the lone downtown high-rise in this 1973 view of northbound Interstate 5 approaching the Yesler Way overpass on the way to the James Street exit. (Mark Tyrrell)
NOW: The Seafirst Building (today Safeco Plaza) is obscured by other skyscrapers in this view of the Yesler Way overpass from northbound Interstate 5. (Clay Eals)
Click the above image to download a pdf of a paper on Interstate 90 by then-16-year-old Matt Masuoka.
This two-page illustration of how the notorious “bulge” in the Mercer Island floating bridge worked comes from the 1961 children’s book “A Water Tour of Seattle” by Stan Styner and illustrated by Merill Grant.

AN APPRECIATION OF MARK TYRRELL:

Click the image above to download a 48-page booklet of Mark Tyrrell’s writings, prepared for the gathering of friends following Mark’s death in 1997. (Clay Eals)
Mark Tyrrell and his beloved bicycle, 1970s. Together, he and Clay bicycled across the country, from Westport, WA, to Boston, MA, in the summer of 1980. The trip took 71 days and covered 4,500 miles. (Clay Eals collection)

 

 

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “Seattle Now & Then: the old Highway 10, 1973”

  1. I worked with Mark at Honeywell Marine Systems Division. He was a wonderful person. When I saw this article today it brought back many memories.

    Reply

  2. We hippie kids rented a house on Mercer island right next to the approach to the old floating bridge. It was owned by the state in prep for the big interstate.

    One winter day in the early 70s it snowed. We decided to walk down the bridge and found ourselves pushing stuck cars up the hill towards the island.

    Then the curve right out of the tunnel. OMG so many hit the wall. Yikes.

    Plus that bulge and the reversible lane on what my parents called Sunset highway scared the crap out of me.

    Thanx for the great memories!!

    Reply
  3. Pingback: Sunday Movie: I-90 in the 1970s – Seattle Transit Blog

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