COURTESY OF GORDON MILEY PAUL DORPAT	This recently recovered and thoroughly unique scene photographed on the deck of the Latona Bridge looks north toward the structure's namesake community. Disassembled in 1919, this bridge was "repeated" in the early 1960s when the I-5 freeway bridge was raised exactly in line with it. Named for the Lake Washington Ship Canal, the new and higher bridge would have been named for Latona had the students at Latona School been consulted. They spend considerable time each class day gazing out at the hypnotic repetition of its nearby traffic and listening to the white noise that accompanies it.

The scene looks north on the northbound track of the old Latona Bridge. The original wooden trestle was dedicated on July 31, 1891, to the accompaniment of an eight-voice glee club from Fremont. Eleven years later the bridge was remodeled to give pedestrians and vehicles their own right-of-way. In 1912 that part of the bridge — the eastern half behind the workers right of center — was given an asphalt surface.

During the summer-long Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition on the University of Washington campus in 1909, an estimated 4 million people crossed the bridge. In ordinary times, it took such a regular pounding that it frequently needed repairs. The pile driver at work here is most likely replacing a pier suffering dry rot.

In 1916, the bridge was remodeled again, acquiring moveable spans to allow even ocean-going steel-hulled ships to pass. The Chittenden Locks at Ballard began lifting ships to fresh water in 1916, but it was not until 1917 that the Montlake Cut was opened for their passage into Lake Washington.

The last of the Latona configurations served the northeast end until the June 30, 1919, dedication of the University Bridge just east of the Latona span. Soon after, the bridge at Latona was dismantled and most of the energy of the Latona business district at the north end of the bridge also collapsed. Some of the old-time Latona merchants like the grocer Sylvan Paysse moved their businesses to the University District.

Vol. 1 and Vol. 3 of Paul Dorpat's books, "Seattle Now and Then" are $19.95 each from Tartu Publications, P.O. Box 85208, Seattle, WA 98145.