7:17 AM: That’s a screenshot from a few minutes ago as the SDOT traffic camera at the crest of the West Seattle Bridge showed the first bicyclists crossing the bridge on the Emerald City Ride. Between now and 9 am, the riders, who started near the stadiums and are accessing the bridge via southbound 99, will head over the westbound bridge and onto Harbor Avenue to continue the ride around West Seattle. The ride is on the westbound lanes only; eastbound remains open to motorized traffic. After riding around Alki and down to Fauntleroy, they’ll head back through eastern West Seattle and via the regular path on the low bridge. (Here are ride details sent to riders.) Updates to come.
7:27 AM: That’s from our photographer along Harbor Avenue, as the post-bridge riders head north/west along the West Seattle waterfront.
(added) And some video:
Meantime, the SDOT camera at 1st/Dearborn just showed another wave heading onto the short closed stretch of southbound 99, which closes to riders at 8 am.
This is a ride, not a race, so departures are going in waves.
7:46 AM: Still crossing. Noticed a recumbent rider too.
Thanks to Debra Salazar Herbst for this view of riders on Alki Avenue:
8:10 AM: This is the first Emerald City Ride since 2019; previous rides have included other iconic roadways such as the Alaskan Way Viaduct pre-demolition. The riders, meanwhile, are down to a trickle; SDOT has turned the high-bridge camera to look eastward:
Unrelated to the ride, a car has stalled/broken down on the low bridge (thanks to Rose for the word on that) so access to the westbound low bridge is backed up.
8:27 AM: Watching the live camera pointed north/west on the high bridge again. A few stragglers are still crossing.
That was as of a few minutes ago. Now they’re picking up the cones, so it looks like the bridge part of the course has cleared.
8:35 AM: Down on the low bridge, some riders are headed back to the SODO start/finish line, via the regular path:
8:45 AM: Haven’t seen cars on the high bridge yet (15 minutes remain until the official preannounced “no more bridge access” cutoff).
8:51 AM: High bridge now reopened to motorized vehicles. We’ll check with Cascade later to see what the final registration total was for the ride.
ADDED 5:24 PM: Thanks to Allyne Armitage for rider’s-eye-view photos:
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