There is certain contrariness that seems to come

with island living. Back when it was hard to get off

the island, we wanted to make it easier to get away, at least for the weekend. Ironically, when it became easier to get away, it became easier for others to come here too. So we’re still unhappy, only the reasons have shifted a bit.

Central to this progression may be the Hood Canal, a spectacular natural barrier to exploration of the Olympic Peninsula that was finally bridged, after some argument and debate, in 1961. We were reminded as much this week, as the Washington State Department of Transportation closed

the Hood Canal Bridge for repairs and “our” route to those marvelous lands to the west became, for a couple of weekends at least, much more circuitous.

The opening of the Agate Passage Bridge in 1950 left state and local planners to turn their attention to the next span that should properly join east and west. Much talk was given to bridging Puget Sound, thus linking Bainbridge Island with Seattle, but that posed a few challenges for the engineers. Meanwhile, on the Fourth of July weekend, 1955, many

thousands of holiday travelers backed up around Hood Canal ferry landings, waiting for transport between Lofall and South Point.

A few days later in these pages, Review editor Walt Woodward observed: “We have long been irritated at and unable to fathom the mental processes of the state administration, which spends years on a ‘pie in the sky’ bridge across Puget Sound while giving almost no attention to the clear-cut need for a span across Hood Canal. Instead of spending all

that time dreaming about such highly complex problems as a cross-sound bridge or the Everett-Seattle-Tacoma freeway, the state administration ought to be able to spare a few moments to get some action on a relatively simple matter which literally cries for a bridge at Hood Canal.

“It’s the old ‘salt-water complex,’ we guess,” Woodward went on. “For some line of reasoning which completely escapes us, bridges across salt water somehow take more talk and planning and wasted motion than bridges over fresh water. Eastern Washington is full of fresh-water bridges, which the state built as a matter of course.”

Walt urged the denizens of Bainbridge, Bremerton, Poulsbo, Sequim, Port Townsend and Port Angeles to band together, thence to “go down to Olympia to pound on the right desk.”

Not long after, the state came round to the editor’s way of thinking, and the Hood Canal Floating Bridge – billed as the “New Scenic Gateway to the Olympic Peninsula” – finally opened on Aug. 12, 1961. So popular was the new span that Washington State Ferries immediately introduced 24-hour ferry service between Seattle and Winslow, to accommodate the throngs of cityfolk for whom the rugged Olympics were suddenly within comfortable reach. The state even took out a massive advertisement in the Review, promising “a convenient new link to the wonders of the peninsula” as “sport fishing, hiking, camping and breathtaking views of the Olympic Range move closer in travel time.”

Thus began a summer-long spectacle that continues to this day, as Seattle folk make their mass exodus from the big city by ferry and cross Bainbridge Island, bound for the wilds of the peninsula. Except, perhaps, for the next couple of weekends, as the bridge is closed and a special ferry will link Seattle with Port Townsend.

For truly intrepid islanders, it’s a chance to reacquaint

ourselves with Hood Canal and the Olympic Peninsula via the long way around. Just like the old days.