And, why did people want it?
"The first person to suggest a bridge across the Narrows was J.G. [John G.] Schindler, a rancher at Rosedale," according to Captain Ed Lorenz, a local steamboat operator, in an interview with a Tacoma newspaper columnist in 1939. "It was 1888 or 1889. We were going through the Narrows one day when Schindler, pointing to the high bluffs on each side, said, 'Captain, some day you will see a bridge over these Narrows.' We all thought Schindler was crazy."
The first documented effort to campaign for a bridge occurred in 1923. The Federated Improvement Clubs, a Tacoma organization, wrote a letter to surrounding chambers of commerce and community organizations asking them to support the idea. Peninsula residents wholeheartedly supported a bridge. For generations, the deep water and treacherous currents of the Narrows had separated the peninsula from the populated and prosperous east shore of Puget Sound. A bridge would mean greater ease in crossing and an opportunity to participate fully in the region's economy. It would also mean much desired economic development in the community as new residents and businesses were established.
In 1928 the City of Tacoma and the Pierce County Board of Commissioners asked the state to construct a bridge across the Narrows. By 1929, preliminary designs and sketches were showing up in local newspapers.
Two impediments stood in the way of a bridge. One was financing. A variety of public and private strategies were discussed, but it was difficult to come up with a workable plan. It became even more difficult when the Depression began. In addition, there was the ferry problem. In 1926 the county granted a franchise to Gig Harbor's own Mitchell Skansie, who organized the Washington Navigation Company the following year. The 10-year contract for service between Tacoma and the peninsula promised immunity from competition. "Every time we would get started with some financing, that contract would come up and we would have to include its purchase in the total, which was always too high as it was." (Thad Stevenson, Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, Tacoma Daily Ledger, Oct. 3, 1938)