SCULPTURE SAGA: Rolf returns to the West Seattle Bridge-side trail

The trailside tribute to a bizarre chapter in West Seattle Bridge history is back. Announced by Lars:

It is with tireless dedication, that your Delridge Maritime Historical Society, in conjunction with the CFGA, is relieved to announce the return of Rolf Neslund to his memorial shrine The new and improved 2021 model Rolf bust is twice as heavy, with a lower center of gravity, and features state-of-the-art lo-jack technology and exploding dye packs to foil those without a sense of humor. As our world quickly grinds itself to an oily paste before our very eyes, we will once again have the rock-steady hand of our pilot, Captain Rolf Neslund on the tiller, headed straight for the bridge! Full speed ahead!

The Rolf Neslund Memorial Shrine and Garden of Commuting Despair is open daily on the lovely Delridge bike path, near the now defunct “Onramp to Freedom”. Please bring flowers, candles or small stuffed animals in an expression of futility that you will ever get to work on time again.

This comes one month after this work’s predecessor was sculpture-napped, barely a week after it was placed. (That original story has links explaining Rolf Neslund’s place in peninsula history – piloting the freighter that hit the old West Seattle Bridge in 1978, breaking a longstanding logjam over building the new one.)

17 Replies to "SCULPTURE SAGA: Rolf returns to the West Seattle Bridge-side trail"

  • kumalavula October 26, 2020 (7:28 pm)

    stay put, rolf!

  • Jethro Marx October 26, 2020 (8:04 pm)

    Delightfully dour!

  • Dm October 26, 2020 (8:12 pm)

    Rolf!

  • Workdown October 26, 2020 (8:22 pm)

    I love it! Thank you for replacing.  Now let’s fix that bridge!!

  • SweetiePie October 26, 2020 (9:00 pm)

    Hip hip Hooray the statute of the wife beater is back. This story kills me, but it is entertaining.

  • Mike October 26, 2020 (9:32 pm)

    Need recipe for his wife’s spaghetti sauce.

  • jonathan vogel October 26, 2020 (10:39 pm)

    Lars has quite a sense of humor… lo jack… hah~!

    • waikikigirl October 27, 2020 (11:18 am)

      And exploding dye!!!! moo  ha ha

  • 22blades October 27, 2020 (6:36 am)

    I never understood the fascination of community villains elevated to some kind of hero status. Captains of ships that rammed bridges or of airliners that ran out of fuel.

    • Cranky Westie October 27, 2020 (10:12 am)

      I think the lack of sense of humor dye pack just exploded on you

  • wseaturtle October 27, 2020 (8:10 am)

    Has anyone ever found the body?

  • Lola October 27, 2020 (10:21 am)

    WSEATURTLE,  Yes the wife killed him and burned his body out back in a barrel in the house they lived on  Lopez Island.  Ann Rule wrote a book called No Regrets that tells you all about it.  

  • Amy Thomson October 27, 2020 (10:44 am)

    Hurrah!  And many thanks to the Delridge Maritime Historical Society!  It’s nice to see Rolf reborn!  (Though I miss his cool hat!)

  • JeffK October 27, 2020 (12:51 pm)

    Would be poetic if the bridge fell on his bust.The Historylink article was a wild ride!

  • JVP October 28, 2020 (2:02 pm)

    I love you guys and your sense of irony, humor, and history. Thanks for this!

  • Oblivious Audi Driver October 28, 2020 (4:03 pm)

    I offer special reflection and devotion to St. Rolf for special intercession every time I try to beat it across the low bridge, because, you know…I’m special… 

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