History of the Boston Street Bridge
By Curt Cunningham

The original Pacific highway crossing of the Deschutes river was across a narrow gorge between the upper and middle Tumwater falls. Today this crossing is known as the Boston Street bridge. The first bridge over the river was completed at the end of February 1853, between the falls, and near the grist mill. Tumwater and Olympia were now linked by a good wagon road, which was appreciated by the farming community located on the south side of the river, as well as being of the greatest importance to the traveling public. The bridge would be replaced in the 1870's and again around 1900. Wooden bridges did not last very long.

In 1892 a trolley line was constructed between Olympia and Tumwater. The line ran down Capitol Boulevard and terminated at a depot that was located at the east end of the bridge.

On February 1, 1915, O. S. Lee and A. Swartz, who were members of the Tumwater street committee appeared before the county commissioners. They presented a proposal for a new bridge to be built over the Deschutes river to replace the upper bridge, which was beginning to fail. They asked the county to join in with the city of Tumwater in the construction of a new bridge. The commissioners appeared to like the idea and agreed to meet at a later date to inspect the bridge site.

On May 4, 1915, Thurston County Clerk Annie Gaston placed ads in the newspaper giving notice for bids to replace the upper Tumwater bridge with a concrete span.

On June 4 1915, with a bid of $13,444 from Howard S. Wright of Everett, and another for $13,798 from Charles G. Huber of Seattle, the county commissioners postponed for a week the final action on awarding the contract for the new bridge across the Deschutes river at Tumwater.

There were 8 bids for the construction of the bridge, the highest was $16,990. Representatives from Tumwater attended the meeting, as the town was obligated to pay $6,333 of the cost for the new structure. The balance of the total cost came out of the general county road and bridge fund. On June 11, 1915, The Thurston County Commissioners, awarded the construction contract for the bridge to Charles G. Huber of Seattle at a price of $13,780.

On November 15, 1915, the new concrete bridge across the Deschutes river at Tumwater was completed. The contract was for $13,780, but some extras" added $350 to the project for a total cost of $14,130. The structure is a Luten arch concrete and steel reinforced bridge, 190 feet long and 18 feet wide. During the construction of the bridge, the Pacific Highway between Olympia and Tumwater was concrete paved. In 1919, the highway south of Tumwater would be concrete paved.

In 1916, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed an Oregon Trail marker at the west end of the bridge. 

The Boston Street bridge as it is known today, was a great improvement to the Pacific Highway. Along with the new pavement, the highway was a grand thoroughfare between Tumwater and Olympia. But after 20 years, the bridge and highway through Tumwater was becoming obsolete. The old highway south of Olympia had 5 elbow jointed corners with 4 of them at the bridge. With all of the sharp turns, this section of the Pacific Highway became a traffic bottleneck, and was extremely dangerous for both motorists and pedestrians.

By the 1930's something urgently needed to be done about the traffic congestion through Tumwater. To remedy the problem an entirely new highway would have to be built. In 1935, construction began on a new 4 lane concrete bridge over the Deschutes river above Tumwater falls. The bridge bypassed the old Boston Street Bridge and also the business district of Tumwater forcing the merchants and gas stations to move east to the north end of the new bridge.

In 1955 construction began on the new Olympia-Tumwater freeway. The freeway would be built right through Tumwater splitting the town in half. In 1956, the Custer Way Bridge was completed. This bridge was built just north of the Boston Street bridge, and was constructed to span the new freeway and reconnect East and West Tumwater.