For more than a year, hundreds if not thousands of people have used a couple wood planks every day to cross a ten-foot gap in the path between Lake Union Park and the endless parking lot along Fairview Ave N that connects South Lake Union and the Eastlake neighborhood. These planks simply appeared one day, seemingly the work of a skilled trail builder, and have since helped countless people cross the sunken and often-muddy gap between the paths in Lake Union Park and the path built to the property line of the adjacent Lake Union Piers. As construction for the RapidRide J project has disrupted the other biking and walking options and has directed street traffic onto the streetcar tracks, this little bridge has served an even more important role to help people move safely through the area.
But after more than a year of heavy use, the wood planks had more than served their role and were starting to split. Late last week, Seattle Bike Blog reader Dave spoke with a Seattle Parks Department worker who had removed the wooden bridge and was cutting back vegetation to prepare the site for construction of a proper path. A Seattle Parks spokesperson confirmed that a concrete path will be installed as soon as June 13, though details and timing are still being finalized. The gap has been filled with gravel in the meantime, and people are still biking through.
This little path is a fascinating example of the public creating an official pathway out of the sheer force of human movement. The desire line is simply too strong, and no amount of hostility from previous parking lot managers or the Seattle Parks Department itself was able to stop it. Lake Union Park was not designed with a full-sized multi-use trail along this obvious desire line, and Parks is often hostile to the idea of people biking through parks for the purpose of transportation. This gap has long been a popular bike route despite every attempt to stop it. Years ago, bike riders and parking lot managers would play a game where a log might appear blocking the path one day, then mysteriously be moved out of the way the next.
Sometimes a single person parking in just the right way would completely block access to this connection.
After Vulcan bought and redeveloped much of the Lake Union Piers property, they installed a lot more sidewalk space and accessible connections, including the start of a path to connect into Lake Union Park. However, a gap of about 10 feet remained, and heavy use quickly stamped down the dirt, creating puddles and revealing an old stump.
Finally, crews on the Lake Union Piers project cleared out the direct path and installed a concrete stub pointing into the park.
The new almost-connection seemed to significantly increase use as more people discovered the best walking and biking connection between these neighborhoods. By winter, the dirt gap was a treacherous and muddy mess Seattle Bike Blog named Missing Path Bog.
The situation was transitioning from annoying to hazardous, especially as the tire path became a muddy puddle when it rained and the tree stump stuck out higher as the dirt packed down lower. There was no word from Seattle Parks about any project to fix this gap, and conditions were getting worse. That’s when a hero rose from among the people. An anonymous person (or group) worked under the cover of darkness (presumably) to build a wooden bridge across the gap. It was cut perfectly and set to the perfect height to provide a smooth crossing from one concrete path to the other. They filled in the puddle with gravel, which they also used as a sturdy base for the bridge supports. They even installed a tactile strip to help maintain traction when wet.
The bridge was an instant success, and the whimsy of the thing turned this from one of my least favorite parts of the route to one of the highlights. It was so fun to watch people smiling and laughing while using it. This is the kind of thing you might encounter on a hiking or mountain bike trail, not a city commute route. It felt like, well, crossing a bog. But even more impressive, the build quality was so good that it lasted for more than a year before one of the planks finally started to split down the middle.
I asked the Parks Department if they have an estimate for how many people use this park entrance daily, but they do not. I conducted a five-minute count during the evening rush in May 2025 and got 11 people. Extrapolate that to an hour and you’d get 132 people per hour during peak travel times. It might not be a stretch to say this little path carried about a thousand trips per day for a year, putting it maybe around 400,000 trips during its lifetime (EDIT: I did the math wrong in an earlier version and got slightly higher numbers). Though I can’t confirm it never happened, I never received a report of someone crashing on it.
This wood bridge proved definitely that an official path connection is needed in this spot, and the splitting wood after a year of heavy use likely forced the issue. It needed to be removed, and Parks could not put off creating a permanent connection any longer.
I salute you, wooden bridge builder. I also salute all the individuals who have persisted for years in biking through this gap. You all did it. You made this happen through force of collective will and incredible patience/stubbornness. Take a bow, and look out for people backing out of their parking spot after dinner at Daniel’s Broiler.