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Item
Title
A115129-8
Date(s)
- 1958-06-16 (Creation)
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Mount Rainier can be seen in the distance through the mist in this aerial photograph of Fox Island taken on June 16, 1958. Heavily wooded Fox Island is located between the Carr Inlet and Hales Passage, two miles northeast of McNeil Island in northwestern Pierce County. It was named in 1841 after Dr. J.L. Fox, an assistant surgeon of the Wilkes Expedition. The Fox Island Bridge can be spotted toward the center of the photograph. It spans 1,981 feet over Hales Passage and was completed in 1954. The bridge was opened by Governor Arthur Langlie and Anne Nelson, the first white girl born on Fox Island. Fox Islanders had to pay tolls on the new bridge; added to the expenses incurred with cars and gasoline, the cost of getting to Tacoma more than doubled. By 1956, the population on the island had declined to 115 families. Nearly a half-century later, according to the 2000 census, there were approximately 2800 people living on Fox Island. (History of Pierce County, Vol. 1, p. 59) TPL-9232
Aerial photographs; Bridges--Fox Island;