That photo was sent by Rose Feliciano, one of four people who messaged us today to report that the trailside tribute to Rolf Neslund has fallen again – and lost its head again. (First – background if you’re new – Rolf Neslund is the pilot blamed for the 1978 ship collision that forced the old West Seattle Bridge to be replaced. He subsequently retired and was murdered by his wife in 1980. HistoryLink summarizes the saga.) In 2020, during the first year of the West Seattle Bridge’s 2 1/2-year closure, a mysterious “historian” installed the statue along the bike/foot path by the bridge, declaring Rolf “patron saint of the broken bridge.” Days later, the statue itself was broken; someone made off with its head. A month later, it was restored and reinstalled. Then one year ago, the whole sculpture simply fell and needed re-assembly and re-installation (Rose was part of that project); this time its head is missing, nowhere in sight. Who did it, and what happens next? Hard to tell with a rogue artwork that belongs to nobody and everybody; we’ll keep our ear to the ground!
West Seattle, Washington
11 Tuesday
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