The Southway Bridge is a highway bridge spanning the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States. About long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Begin ...

between

Clarkston, Washington Clarkston is a city in Asotin County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Lewiston, ID-WA metropolitan area, and is located west of Lewiston, Idaho, across the Snake River. The population of Clarkston was 7,161 at the 2020 census. Cla ...

, and

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's North Central Idaho, north central region. It is the third-largest city in the Idaho Panhandle, northern Idaho region, behind Post Falls, Idaho, Pos ...

. It connects Fleshman Way in Clarkston with Bryden Canyon Road in Lewiston, and provides residents of the Lewiston Orchards with access to State Route 129, as well as providing Clarkston residents with access to the

Lewiston–Nez Perce County Airport Lewiston–Nez Perce County Airport is a public airport in the northwest United States, in north-central Idaho. Owned by the city of Lewiston and Nez Perce County, it is in an elevated area of the city south of downtown, approximately above ...

. The bridge was opened to traffic on August 3, 1982, at a cost of $21 million, after several delays due to repairs. The Bryden County Road project linking the bridge to the Lewiston Orchards was completed in 1999. The bridge was built to supplement the

Interstate Highway Bridge The Interstate Highway Bridge crosses the Snake River, between Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho. The bridge carries U.S. Route 12 (US 12) across the state line between Washington and Idaho, and is maintained by the Washington Sta ...

(nicknamed the "Blue Bridge") to the north, which was sometimes closed to traffic while the bridge was raised to allow large boats to cross underneath.

Funding

A bill to fund the bridge (titled "''S. 3563. A bill to authorize the construction of a highway bridge across the Snake River between Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho")'' was introduced in June 1974 by Senators

Warren Magnuson Warren Grant Magnuson (April 12, 1905May 20, 1989) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the Washington (state), state of Washington in United States Congress, Congress for 44 years, first as a United States House of Representativ ...

Henry M. Jackson Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson (May 31, 1912 – September 1, 1983) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. representative (1941–1953) and U.S. senator (1953–1983) from the state of Washington (state), Washington. A Cold W ...

Frank Church Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was an American politician and lawyer. A Democrat, from 1957 to 1981 he served as a U.S. Senator from Idaho, and is currently the last Democrat to do so. He was the longest serving De ...

. and James McClure. In the senators' testimony, they cited the inadequacy of the

for the modern vehicular traffic of the time, and shared concerns about the creation of the new reservoir in the coming years (created by the

Lower Granite Dam Lower Granite Lock and Dam is a concrete gravity Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity, run-of-the-river dam in southeastern Washington (state), Washington in the United States. On the lower Snake River, it bridges Whitman County, Washington, Whitman ...

) which would result in traffic delays due to increased boat traffic under the bridge requiring the raising of the 1939 bridge. The Lower Granite Dam was completed in 1975, creating a reservoir (

Lower Granite Lake Lower Granite Lake is a reservoir created by Lower Granite Dam. The dam is a concrete gravity run-of-the-river dam in the northwest United States. On the lower Snake River in southeastern Washington, it bridges Whitman and Garfield counties. Ope ...

) that extended through the

Lewiston–Clarkston metropolitan area The Lewiston–Clarkston metropolitan area—colloquially referred to as the Lewiston–Clarkston Valley or Lewis–Clark Valley (often abbreviated as LC Valley), and officially known as the Lewiston, ID–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area—i ...

, raising the surfaces of the

and Clearwater River to above sea level.

References

Bridges over the Snake River {{Idaho-bridge-struct-stub