It’s so hot in Seattle, they’re spraying down the drawbridges

It’s been blazingly hot in Seattle this week with Tuesday being the hottest day in the city since the deadly 2021 heat dome. With temperatures this high, the city’s drawbridges have to be cooled down to keep operating properly.

How hot is it in Seattle this week? So hot that even our drawbridges need a cool-down spritz. If you see fire hoses at some Seattle bridges during this heat wave, don't worry: it's just preventative maintenance.

“We give our bridges cool baths whenever temperatures get this high,” said Ethan Bergerson, press secretary for the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Three drawbridges in Seattle get hosed down multiple times a day in this weather: the Fremont, Ballard, and University Bridges.

Bergerson said these bridges have metal components and, “when you get really hot weather for several days in a row, you run the risk of that metal expanding and the bridge getting stuck.”

That could cause serious problems, like in New York City this week where a bridge did get stuck open due to the excessive heat.

SDOT typically sprays the bridges when temperatures are in the mid-80s or higher.

Last summer SDOT installed a sprinkler system to the University Bridge to keep cool but it didn’t really get hot enough to use. This summer, however, the new sprinklers are on full blast.

Bergerson says a bridge spraying takes about as much time as when it opens to let a boat through.

And no, KUOW checked, the bridges are closed during these times and people cannot run through the water no matter how hot it is.