The Aurora Bridge (officially called the George Washington Memorial Bridge) is a cantilever and truss bridge in Seattle, Washington, United States. It carries State Route 99 (Aurora Avenue North) over the west end of Seattle's Lake Union and connects Queen Anne and Fremont. The bridge is located just east of the Fremont Cut, which itself is spanned by the Fremont Bridge. The Aurora Bridge is owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation. It is long, wide, and above the water. The bridge was opened to traffic on February 22, 1932, the 200th anniversary of the birth of namesake George Washington. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The bridge has been the site of numerous fatal incidents over the years. It is a popular location for suicide jumpers and several reports have used the bridge as a case study in fields ranging from suicide prevention to the effects of pre-hospital care on trauma victims. In 1998, a bus driver was shot and killed while driving over the bridge, causing his bus to crash and resulting in the death of one of the passengers. In 2015, five people were killed and fifty were injured when an amphibious duck tour vehicle crashed into a charter bus on the bridge in an incident that also involved two smaller vehicles. Design The bridge is long, wide, above the water and is owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). There are two V-shaped cantilever sections supporting the bridge deck, each long and balanced on large concrete pilings at opposite sides of the ship canal which serve as the two main supporting anchors. Some 828 timber piles were driven for the foundation of the south anchor and 684 piles for the north. They range in size from and rest below the surface of the water. Together, the anchors support a load of 8,000 tons. Their construction required a pile driver that was specially designed to work underwater. A long Warren truss suspended span connects the two cantilevers in the middle. The bridge's main span is long. At either end of the bridge there are additional Warren truss spans which connect the cantilevered spans to the highway. History Construction on the bridge piers began in 1929, with construction of the bridge following shortly afterwards in 1931. The bridge's dedication was held on February 22, 1932,