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Not so long ago a historically rich icon served as gateway to Gig Harbor and the West Puget Sound. It graced the cover of countless publications and while it may not have been as famous as its Golden Gate cousin, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was certainly a local celebrity.

But progress had reared its head and the bridge designed to handle 60,000 cars a day exceeded 90,000 with no end to growth in sight. As a result, construction on a second bridge began in October 2002.

Later this month, that second bridge will have been open one year. Yes, it has relieved us of the bumper to bumper congestion we had come to expect during peak times. But at what cost?

While attractive enough in its own right, and much wider and I think more stable feeling than its older sister, gone is the quaint gateway from the mainland. Someone decided to take a close-but-not-quite approach to design, carrying a few design elements from the old to the new bridge, and making the newcomer look more like a distant cousin than a sister bridge.

No matter how we try, we just can’t see how the two designs mesh. The two bridges seem more a testimony to the chaos of unbridled development than a tribute to progress.

And like a tatoo, we’ll just have to live with the results.

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