[jpwgarrison]

Your optimism is nice, but unfounded. South park (South of Seattle) was left with one bridge for four years: https://www.historylink.org/File/10808

In Michigan, they've resorted to making some bridges single lane after they were rated too old for two cars at a time.

https://www.wxyz.com/news/getting-around/heavy-vehicles-usin...

https://www.freep.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/05/1...

[loeg]

The north part of West Seattle also basically has the one bridge. And WA did have an I-5 bridge collapse a few years back, although IIRC it was collision-induced structural damage:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-5_Skagit_River_Bridge_collap...

[illirik]

I live in West Seattle, and there are technically two - there's also a drawbridge for pedestrians/cyclists/two lanes of traffic. Both are pretty new, and work well; the Magnolia situation, on the other hand, is a lot tougher. The residents of Magnolia are also known to really fear additional connectivity (especially public transit) in part due to an unfounded fear of crime.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/07/02/28583329/magnoli... (title sarcastic)

[snowwrestler]

They did replace the South park bridge, so my optimism seems pretty founded?

Michigan is not willing to leave bridges down; they lack money. Not an issue in a wealthy suburb of Seattle.