Deception Pass Bridge
— the steel arch above the green race.
Not only on a wall.
“Two steel arches between two islands, with a small rock outcrop in the middle holding the deck up. The longer span carries State Route 20 across Deception Pass; the shorter span crosses Canoe Pass to Pass Island. The deck is 180 feet above the water, and the water below moves fast in both directions depending on the tide. The bridge has stood since the summer of 1935 and was on the National Register by 1982. There is a narrow walkway on both sides. People stop in the middle to look down at the current, and the cars keep coming.
Deception Pass Bridge, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Deception Pass Bridge carries State Route 20 across two narrow saltwater channels between Fidalgo Island to the north and Whidbey Island to the south, about ten miles south of Anacortes in Skagit and Island Counties. The crossing is in two spans: a steel cantilever arch over Deception Pass on the south side, and a shorter arch over Canoe Pass on the north, joined by a small rock outcrop called Pass Island. The deck stands 180 feet above the water at high tide and the bridge runs roughly 1,487 feet between abutments. The structure sits within Deception Pass State Park, the most-visited state park in Washington with more than two million visitors a year.
Construction began in 1934 under the Public Works Administration, and the bridge opened to traffic on July 31, 1935. Before it was built, crossing between Fidalgo and Whidbey required a small ferry across Deception Pass, or a long drive around through Skagit and Snohomish Counties. The structure was designed by the Washington State Department of Highways as two steel arch spans, the longer over Deception Pass and a shorter one over Canoe Pass, joined by the rock outcrop of Pass Island. In 1982 the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Civilian Conservation Corps built much of the surrounding Deception Pass State Park in the same period.
The bridge is open to vehicles and pedestrians around the clock with no toll. A narrow walkway runs along both sides of the deck, separated from traffic by a steel railing, with the deck 180 feet above the water. Most visitors park in the small lots at either end of the bridge or inside Deception Pass State Park and walk out to the middle. A short stairway from the north end leads down to Pass Island for a different angle on the spans. A Washington Discover Pass is required to park inside the state park; the small roadside lots at the bridge ends are free.