Building a bridge across a 688-feet canyon while 155 feet above a raging river is no easy feat. And to build it in 16 months is even more remarkable. So it was when the Kummer Cutoff Bridge was constructed between June 1932 and October 1933 to provide a direct route between Black Diamond and Enumclaw. This is the sixth and final column of the building of what is officially known as the Dan Evans Bridge that carries Highway 169 over the Green River.
This October 1933 scene shows the completed Kummer Bridge and a man who may be Thomas P. Blum. It was Blum who took 38 photos documenting its construction, six of which were included in this series. Blum was born on Dec. 26, 1893 in Durango, Colorado coming to Seattle as a child. He served as an ensign during the First World War and later worked for the Seattle Port Commission. Blum was employed as a King County bridge inspector from 1924 – 1934, and during his last three years took over 500 photos of county bridges. His final job took him to the Navy Yard in Bremerton as an inspector.
Blum died on Jan. 30, 1942 at age 48. His 1918 marriage to May Fatland produced a daughter, Ellen; and three sons, Thomas, Dan, and Gene. He was also survived by a sister, Katherine Blum who owned a 40-acre property less than a mile from the Kummer Bridge. In 1956, the family property was developed into the Blum Clay pit by Gladding McBean & Company and mined for the next 30 years by Gordon Moulden & Sons. This and the five column photos preceding it, come courtesy of the King County Archives exhibit titled, “The Bridges of King County Through the Lens of T. P. Blum.”
