Neighbor's Interesting History On Sand Point Way, Still a State Highway

 The Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC) published this information in a recent newsletter:

Sand Point Way and State Route 513 

Written by Jim Rupp, LCC trustee and historian 

If you are using a navigation app when you leave Laurelhurst on Mary Gates Drive, the voice will direct you to turn onto NE 45th Street, and some apps will also refer to “State Route 513.” What’s that all about? 

Well, the 3.35-mile stretch starting at the 520 Interchange, proceeding over the Montlake Bridge and along Montlake Boulevard, then on Sand Point Way up to the entrance to Magnuson Park at Northeast 65th Street, is still a state highway. It is a remnant of a longer highway whose origins can be traced way back to 1864 and at one time it extended from downtown Seattle to the city limits at NE 145th Street. 

Much of State Route 513 was created in preparation for the AlaskaYukon-Pacific exposition, Seattle’s first world’s fair, held on the UW campus in 1909. At that time, the eastern edge of Montlake Boulevard, where the UW parking lot is now located, was marshland full of cattails. 

It was still true in 1934, when my father and his UW fraternity brothers gathered cattails to decorate for a fraternity party. In 1971 the highway’s southern terminus was shortened to begin at Highway 520, then in 1991 the north end was terminated at Magnuson Park. Our odd little stretch of highway is part of the National Highway System, which identifies it as an asset of importance to the national economy, defense, and mobility. 

The state still has jurisdiction over State Route 513, which is why, until 2021, its 35 mph speed limit was higher than that of surrounding streets. That higher limit was authorized by the Washington State Highway Commission in the 1970s, when my dad was a member of the Commission. About a week after that change was implemented, my mother was driving home about 11:30 p.m., from a bridge game in Washington Park, when she was pulled over near Hec Edmundson Pavilion for speeding. “Well officer,” she said, “I’m quite sure I wasn’t speeding because my husband is on the State Highway Commission and I know they changed the speed limit here to 35.” The officer told her she was wrong and gave her a ticket, BUT along about midnight our doorbell rang and there was the officer. He apologized to my mother and took back the ticket. Mom was right again. 

Last year the state agreed with the city that a 30 mph speed limit would be safer, so new speed limit signs were installed in March of 2021. This was part of the city’s ongoing efforts help end traffic deaths and serious injuries by lowering speed limits here and there.