Chow Chow Bridge

The Chow Chow Bridge was an early, wooden cable-stayed bridge crossing the Quinault River on the Quinault Indian Reservation near Taholah, Grays Harbor County, Washington. It was built for the first time in 1952 and finally removed in 1988. Frank Milward designed the bridge for Aloha Lumber Company.[1]

Chow Chow Bridge circa 1968

The bridge collapsed three times and was rebuilt twice. Timbers were made into cedar shakes for the tribal center in Taholah after the final 1988 collapse.[2] It was one of the first cable-stayed bridges in the U.S.,[3] and the first in Washington.[2]

In 1971, the bridge was closed by Joe DeLaCruz and other Quinault in protest of unfair resource extraction on the reservation.[4][5]^:32[6]^:316[7]

References

1. Polodny 1976.
2. Holstine & Hobbs 2005, p. 59.
3. Chow Chow Suspension Bridge, Spanning Quinault River, Taholah, Grays Harbor County, WA, Library of Congress
4. Historylink
5. Portrait of Our Land
6. Jackson 1988.
7. Williams 1991.

Sources

• John Caldbick (July 27, 2011), DeLaCruz, Joseph "Joe" Burton (1937–2000), HistoryLink

• Portrait of Our Land: A Quinault Tribal Forestry Perspective, Quinault Indian Nation, 1978
• Jackson, Donald Conrad (1988), Great American Bridges and Dams, Preservation Press, ISBN 9780891331292
• Williams, Marla (September 22, 1991), "TAKING CHARGE -- LOCAL TRIBES EVOKE THE SPIRIT OF THE PAST TO SHAPE A NEW VISION OF INDEPENDENCE", The Seattle Times, p. 16 – via ProQuest (subscription required)
• Polodny (1976), Design and Construction of Cable-Stayed Bridges, Wiley, ISBN 978-0471756255, OCLC 1992216
• Holstine, Craig E.; Hobbs, Richard (2005), Spanning Washington: Historic Highway Bridges of the Evergreen State, Washington State University Press, ISBN 978-0-87422-281-4