Don't Look Down

We're pretty proud of our two bridge spans around here. The bridge we take to Tacoma has a toll, but we don't have to pay on the one that brings us home. I especially like the fact that the state takes care of them. We see workers painting and checking them often. I saw these guys out recently and thought I'd share.

Those guys are brave. They work to keep the old
bridge sound and looking nice. 

This looks scary enough, but you should see the drop below.
Puget Sound churns underneath. Some of the largest
ocotpodes in the world live there.

Back in the day, when we only had the one bridge, we used to have to plan carefully if we were going  to Tacoma. Both going and coming home could be snarly and add a lot of time, stress and distress to the day. I remember getting a bug to go somewhere, but I'd look at the clock and realize it was a really bad idea. There were times we would spend a couple of hours just trying to make it over the bridge and home in the evening traffic. A trip to Tacoma was usually an all-day event.

The commute is easy peasy now.  I still have to plan for some traffic at peak times, but I've found that during the time of day I have to use either bridge the traffic moves pretty quickly.

In the beginning it was weird to drive on the old one because they opened up all of the lanes to go one direction. When it was our only bridge, there were two lanes in each direction. I found it difficult to use those left lanes for fear of a head-on collision the first few times I drove in them.

Having the new bridge is great, but it's an added expense we didn't have before, especially because I make a lot of trips over those bridges each week. We've adjusted. Oh, and you don't want to get a ticket. If you're not paying attention and slip through those cameras without that Good to Go transponder sticker on your windshield you'll get a little piece of mail with a picture of your car and license plate and a hefty bill for $52.

Raising the toll is a constant topic. With high gas prices and few jobs it is a serious concern for a lot of people who live on this side. Our cars have transponders, which makes our toll price $2.75. Those without a transponder pay $4.
There's a lot more (bad news) I'm not telling you, but if you're interested you can always Google it. Lots of unhappy people when the new contractor took over. New transponders not working, etc.

And if you want a bit of history about the bridge you can read about that here.