Title: Interstate 5 is completed in Washington on May 14, 1969. - HistoryLink.org
Headings: Interstate 5 is completed in Washington on May 14, 1969.
Interstate 5 is completed in Washington on May 14, 1969.
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The Final Piece
Happy Trails

Content: In April 1969 the northbound lanes of this section opened to traffic. The southbound lanes opened on May 14, 1969. Happy Trails
This marked the completion of I-5 in Washington -- and indeed in the Pacific Northwest (the nearest stoplight was on the California side of the state line with Oregon) -- and the occasion was marked with a ceremony that was fairly typical for freeway openings during the 1960s. Various dignitaries came to the late-morning ceremony, which was held on the new Steamboat Slough Bridge just south of Marysville. State highway commissioner Harold Walsh of Everett served as the master of ceremonies, and there was the requisite bevy of beauties participating too; Miss Everett of 1968, Debbie Herivel, and Miss Marysville of 1968, Katherine Smith, snipped the ceremonial ribbon while the 1969 “royal court” from both cities looked on. Everyone was all smiles. The last traffic light on the freeway (located on temporary I-5 at Walnut Street in Everett) between Canada and California was symbolically taken down when the new segment of freeway opened at 11 a.m. District Engineer Bob Roberts, representing the state highway department employees, presented Highway Director Charles Prahl with the light at a luncheon at the Everett Elks Club after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Prahl, who was resigning his position effective June 1, 1969, used the occasion to slam those who had criticized the department’s freeway construction, arguing in his speech: “We all recognize that cities need rapid transit, but people are not going to give up their automobiles, at least not for the next 15 or 20 years ... .