Rolf Neslund

Rolf Neslund. When the Ship Hit the Span. , In the early morning of Sunday, June 11, 1978, the freighter MV Antonio Chavez, piloted by 80 year old, Norwegian Captain Rolf Neslund, rammed the upright span of the westbound lanes of the Spokane Street Bridge. There were no injuries reported, except to Rolf Neslund's reputation. The bridge, though the literal lifeline of West Seattle, was much scorned and hated. In destroying the bridge, Neslund set into motion a vast Rube Goldberg mechanism of Federal emergency funding of a new, soaring, high West Seattle Bridge. Powerful Washington Senator Warren G. Magnuson championed the most impressive bridge money could buy but, like Icarus, it flew too close to the sun. An award-winning, "unique" design built by the low bidder during a recession, possibly guaranteed that someday it would ultimately disappoint the residents of the pennisula it served., Rolf Neslund fared even less well. Retired from the sea in disgrace; he took to his home on Lopez Island where he was murdered by his wife Ruth over "pension" money. His end was particularly grisly and involved a burning barrel and bloodstained ceiling tiles. It is said that on moonless nights, on the now quiet, structually unsound high bridge a drunken voice can be heard singing Norwegian sea shanties down to the ancient river spirits of the Duwamish who laugh and seem to understand the cosmic joke.