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Now & Then Paul Dorpat

Viaduct redux

ON A SUNNY SPRING day in 1953 the Alaskan Way Viaduct was opened to pedestrians before its April dedication to vehicles. Queen Anne resident Horace Sykes loaded his 35mm camera and hiked the speedway. Of the two dozen or so slides he exposed, this one reveals how majestically the 1914 Smith Tower, with its pyramidal cap, then still topped the skyline. In Sykes' original slide, two women command the scene like models on a runway. Their coats are both vivid Kodachrome red and the sky a deep Kodachrome blue.

A lover of orchids and sublime Western scenery, Sykes was less interested in the viaduct than in the spectacle of the city. Predictably, the sensitive amateur barely turned his camera to the waterfront, which in 1953 was dingy. The fresh gray concrete of the viaduct seemed to many then like their speedway to a brave new world, although, in the beginning, not into the central business district. The off and on ramps at Seneca and Columbia streets were added years later.

At 45 miles an hour, it takes about two minutes to drive the viaduct. Jean Sherrard needed four circuits to "nail" Horace Sykes' position. Sherrard reflects, "Most subjects require only a camera and an itchy finger; for this repeat, I also needed a driver and car with sunroof." The fourth circuit was doubly serendipitous for the exposed photographer and his friend, Howard Lev, the driver.

The next car in front of them was as red as the two coats modeled there 53 years earlier. (Readers wanting to verify these colorful claims will find this repeat included full-color in Jean Sherrard's and my new book, "Washington Then and Now," when it returns from the printers sometime this spring.)

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.