Marysville to Mount Vernon 1936
By Curt Cunningham

By the end of the 1920's, the 20 foot wide Pacific Highway was fast becoming obsolete. The narrow roadway with its sharp curves had become dangerous for the increase of traffic now using the road. Cars were also becoming wider and faster which contributed to the danger. Beginning in the 1920's and before the entire roadway had been paved, the state began to improve the road. The highway dept. wanted to eliminate as many of the remaining dangerous railroad crossings as possible, and bypassing the worst sections of the road. One of the first improvements to the highway was in 1922 when a new road was constructed between Seattle and Lake Forest Park which bypassed the Old Bothell Road.

In 1925 the Salmon Creek Cut-off was completed which bypassed the old road between Vancouver and Salmon creek. Also that year a new highway was constructed between Bellingham and Ferndale which bypassed the longer route via Axton Road. In 1927 the Marysville Cut-off bypassed the longer route east of Everett which reduced the travel distance between Everett and Marysville by 5.25 miles, and in 1928 a new 4-lane highway was built between Tacoma and Seattle. 

The 1930's brought even more changes to the Pacific Highway. In 1930 Chuckanut Drive was bypassed by the new Lake Samish road between Burlington and Fairhaven. In 1932 the Aurora bridge was completed and a new 4-lane highway was built between Seattle and Everett. In 1936 the Nisqually Cut-off was completed between Olympia and Tacoma with a new road across the Nisqually valley.

In 1932 plans were made for the construction of a new 13 mile highway between Smokey Point and Conway. This new highway would bypass both East Stanwood and Stanwood. The first phase of construction was to build a new bridge across the Stillaguamish River and another across Pilchuck Creek. The Stillaguamish bridge is located 15 miles north of Everett and 4 miles west of Arlington. On May 10, 1932, a low bid of $177,622 was accepted for contract 1652 for the construction of a bridge over the Stillaguamish River. This bridge consists of 3 - 200 foot steel through truss spans and 250 feet of concrete girder approaches for a total length of about 850 feet. The bridge was completed on July 29, 1933.

The bridge over Pilchuck creek also completed in 1933 is a three-span, 180-foot steel and concrete structure. The bridge is located just north of 236th NE on the Pacific Highway. In July of 2021 the bridge was reduced to a single lane with weight restrictions, and the bridge which is now owned by Snohomish county is scheduled for replacement in 2027.

In 1934 George Banderet was awarded contract 1848 for the grading and surfacing of 4.79 miles of the new highway from Bryant Road northward. That same year I. J. Dowell Inc. was awarded a contract for grading the new highway 36 feet wide from Conway southward for 4.42 miles. This contract also included an 83 foot timber trestle over Fisher creek. The Conway south project was completed on November 15, 1935, and the Bryant Road north construction was completed in 1935.

On November 12, 1936 the Anacortes American said that should the Pacific Highway near Silvana become closed due to high water, the new 13 mile cut-off from the Island School at Smokey Point to Conway would be available for use. 

The new highway between Marysville and Mount Vernon remained a 2-lane highway until the freeway between Marysville and Mount Vernon was completed. At the north end of Smokey Point Blvd. a temporary road was built north to the new bridge. This temporary road was removed shortly after the road was completed and cars entered the new cut-off just south of Portage creek. The remaining unpaved portion of the cut-off would be paved in 1938.

By 1954 the freeway had reached Marysville and from Marysville north the cut-off began to undergo the transition from a 2 lane road to a 4-lane expressway. Both the northbound and the southbound lanes of the freeway would cross over Stillaguamish River on the old 1933 bridge when the freeway was completed in the 1960's. In 1971 a new bridge was built across the Stillaguamish to the east of the old bridge to carry the northbound lanes and the old bridge would carry the southbound traffic.

In the summer of 2014, construction began to paint the structure and replace the old bridge deck which had worn out after 81 years of use. It took about four months to complete the work and the bridge reopened in November of 2014.

In 2022 the 89 year old Stillaguamish bridge continues to span the river, and carries about 100,000 vehicles per day traveling southbound on Interstate-5.