WHEN COAL WAS KING: Photos of the Green River Gorge Bridge never cease to amaze

Photos of the Green River Gorge Bridge never cease to amaze. This one dated October 23, 1929 may have been taken by Captain Dick Craine. Today the bridge has been reduced to one-lane, operated with stoplights on each side. The bridge was constructed in 1914-15 to provide a better link for the historic coal mining town of Franklin, established thirty years earlier. By 1929, a vibrant resort operated on the east side of the river (to the right of the bridge in this photo) on property owned by Bessie W. Craine, the wife of Captain Craine. Between 1920 and 1924, the Craines purchased 11 acres of an area that came to be known as Pacosco, an acronym of sorts for Pacific Coast Company. The Craine property included fresh water springs next to the road where cars still stop to fill water bottles. Capt. Dick and Bessie Craine were proprietors of the Green River Gorge Company, which boasted a hotel, furnished cottages, a clubhouse, tents, picnic grounds, plus picnic and campers’ supplies. Dick Craine even opened a red cinder pit from the old Franklin No. 7 coal mine, which he used to level land beneath the developed resort facilities. This photo comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historical researcher.