SEATTLE, Oct. 2, 2008-The Museum of Flight’s visually-striking pedestrian bridge spanning East Marginal Way is near completion and is expected to be open to the public on Oct. 20, 2008. The T. Evans Wyckoff Memorial Bridge will connect the Museum’s main campus on the east side of East Marginal Way to its west campus, which includes the Library and Archives Building, Airpark and parking lots. It was designed to adapt to the Museum’s future west side development. The project began over three years ago, and from the beginning it was meant to not only enhance visitors’ safety and convenience while crossing a busy thoroughfare, but to delight them with an experience inspired by flight.

 
The bridge’s dynamic shape is inspired from the metaphor of the contrail, a stream of crystallized vapor created in a plane’s wake. The metaphor is carried out in the bridge’s unusual tube truss design, made of crossing circular steel pipe sections surrounding an inner glass enclosure. Colored LED lighting within the structure will enhance the visual experience.

Architects Rick Zieve, FAIA, and Tim Richey, AIA of SRG Partnership led the design of the bridge, which won a Citation Award at the 2008 AIA Washington Council Civic Design Awards.

The bridge will also provide visitors with an audio experience of flight through an original "sound artwork" by award-winning, multidisciplinary Seattle artist Paul Rucker. Rucker’s sound art for the Museum’s bridge will include new musical compositions interwoven with audio sampling from aerospace history and nature. The looped, 60-minute installation will have nine programs of various lengths and themes. The audio experience will utilize 32 channels of sounds weaving throughout the length of the 340 ft. bridge.

This unique structure was a collaborative effort of architects, engineers and steel fabricators using new technologies in computer modeling and fabrication techniques. Structural engineering was provided by Magnusson Klemencic and Associates. Sellen Construction has served as the general contractor and Jesse Engineering were responsible for bridge truss fabrication. Development services for the bridge are being provided by The Seneca Real Estate Group, Inc. Sellen Construction Co. is building the bridge. The bridge is a partnership between the Federal Transit Administration, the State of Washington, King County and private donors to The Museum of Flight.
 
Information about the Oct. 20, 2008 opening ceremonies will be announced soon.

About The Museum of Flight
The non-profit Museum of Flight is one of the largest independent air and space museums in the world. The Museum’s collection includes more than 150 historically significant air and spacecraft, as well as the Red Barn®–the original manufacturing facility of the Boeing Co. The Museum’s aeronautical library and archival holdings are the largest on the West Coast. More than 140,000 students are served annually by the Museum’s on-site and outreach educational programs - the most extensive museum-based youth aviation and space education program in the country. The Museum is the only aviation museum in Washington State that is both nationally accredited with the American Association of Museums and a Smithsonian affiliate.

The Museum of Flight is located at 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, Exit 158 off Interstate 5. The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $14 for adults, $13 for seniors 65 and older, $7.50 for youth 5 to 17, and free for children under 5. Group rates are available. Admission on the first Thursday of the month is free from 5 to 9 p.m. courtesy of Wells Fargo.

Source: The Museum of Flight
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