History of the Bothell Road
By Curt Cunningham

The first wagon road between Seattle and Bothell was constructed in 1887 by the Seattle Lakeshore & Eastern RR. This road followed the construction toward Bothell, and it was used by the workers to bring in supplies. This was a long route following the tracks around the lake, and a couple of years later a shorter road would be built which followed the Military Road from Green lake to the top the the bluff overlooking Lake Washington. From there it utilized the existing logging roads going down the hill to Lake Forest Park where it connected with the railroad company's wagon road to Bothell.

On the bluff overlooking Lake Washington near Acacia cemetery there was a fork in the road. The left fork was County Road #78, which was also the Military Road, and it continued toward Martha lake before it turned east toward Carthcart and then descend the hill to the river crossing at Snohomish. This road would be mostly abandoned or covered by city additions by 1894.

On November 1, 1906 the Seattle Star ran an article that said the people of Bothell wanted a new 30 mile long road, which would connect Bothell with Snohomish and Seattle. At a Bothell citizens meeting, a resolution was passed calling for this road to be built. They said the old road was not properly surveyed and the improvements made on it were a waste of money. The citizens of Bothell and vicinity realized the necessity in establishing a permanent road which would become paved in the future.

This is when Gerhard Erickson submitted a petition for a county road to be built between Seattle and Bothell. This new road would begin at the county line and travel south following the established road wherever it was practicable, and building a new road in places where it wasn't. The road ran south to Bothell and then along the north shore of Lake Washington to Seattle.

Construction began in 1907 and the road would completed by 1909. At the same time Snohomish county began to improve County Road #18, which was their section of the Bothell-Everett road, and their grading work was completed by 1910. On April 14, 1911 it was announced that work on paving the Bothell Road from the University to Lake Forest Park would begin at once. Several hundred yards of crushed rock were used for the macadam paving on about 5 miles of highway which ran through a "primeval" forest," while giving the traveler occasional glimpses of Lake Washington.

On April 3. 1912 the King County Commissioners ordered the construction of the "last link" in the Seattle-Bothell road between Lake Forest Park and Bothell. That year sections of the highway between Seattle and Everett were paved with "Warrenite" macadam. Warrenite is a thin layer of sheet asphalt which is placed on top of hot, un-compacted Bitulithic, which is crushed rock ranging from 75 mm down to dust. The concept was to produce a mix which would be a more “fluid” binder than was used for sheet asphalt.

The Wayne Curve

The Wayne Curve is located about a mile southwest of Bothell and it gets it name from the small community which sprouted up there. In 1913, the county decided to experiment with brick paving on a four mile stretch from Lake Forest Park to Bothell. The necessary gravel came from the Kenmore pit and trainloads of bricks were transported up from Renton and deposited at a siding near Swamp creek. The bricks were laid in stretcher bond (up on their narrow side, lengthwise, offset by 1/2 brick lengths). The workers had to kneel down to place the bricks in the road one by one and seal them in place with mortar.

In 1915 a concrete bridge was built over the Seattle Lakeshore & Eastern RR at the Wayne Curve. This bridge connected Lake Washington Blvd. with the Pacific Highway. When the Bothell Road was widened in the 1930's to four lanes, a small section of the brick highway was bypassed at the Wayne Curve. Cars on the Bothell Road would exit off the main highway to the old brick road before turning onto the bridge.

The bridge was closed in the 1980's a few tears after trains stopped running, and a new road was built which bypassed the bridge and the sharp 90 degree turn at the south end. The bridge would be torn down in the 1990's after pieces of concrete began to fall from the deteriorating bridge endangering pedestrians. Today, only the south end of the bridge remains, and you can walk out on a small portion over looking the Burke-Gilman trail.

At the Brick Road Park, on the Wayne Curve the small section of the original brick pavement which had survived all these years has been preserved. You can park you car and walk along the 400 foot long section while imagining the Bothell bank robbers speeding down its narrow path at 60 miles per hour. To east of the park across the street, you can find the remains of the Wayne Curve bridge.

The Bothell Bandit

During the summer of 1912 people traveling on the lonely stretch of the Bothell Road were being stopped and robbed at gunpoint. On the old highway there was a sharp curve near lake Forest Park and cars had to slow to make the turn. As the car slowed the bandit would jump out from the bushes yelling at the car to pull over while pointing a gun at its driver. 

Complaints to the sheriffs office started to come in about an armed highwayman out on the Bothell Road. Sheriff Hodge sent out several deputies. The man was described as being about 21 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 145 pounds, wears a cap, black suit, and carried a blue pistol.

In the early morning hours of August 31, 1912, the "Bothell Bandit" became frightened when the car he was robbing was knocked into the ditch by another car. The crash scared the bandit, and he fired two shots into the air then fled into the dense forest. It was 3:30am that warm summer morning of the 31st, when W. F. Baker and a party of friends were going home after a long evening. When they approached the sharp curve on the Bothell Road the bandit jumped out and ordered them to stop. As the bandit was finished searching their pockets, the other Seattle bound car came around the corner at a good speed causing the crash.

The robber was almost killed in the accident which scared the heck out of him. This is when he fired the shots over his victims heads and escaped into the woods. He was able to relieve Baker and his friends of $55 dollars. The old Bothell road was narrow at that point and the collision was unavoidable. The Sheriff sent out some deputies, but they could not find any clues. On August 4, 1912 the Bothell Bandit was beginning to gain some notoriety.

The Seattle Star said that the bandit was telling his victims he was merely borrowing money from them so he could open up a grocery store. They also said it was a certainty that he would hang out a "No Credit" sign in his store. A week later the Star said that; "with the present high cost of foodstuffs, the Bothell Bandit, with all his diligence had not yet been able to get enough money to start his little grocery." By 1913 stories of the Bothell Bandit ended. Maybe he finally "borrowed" enough cash to start his store? 

The Bothell Bank Robbery

It was an exciting 10 minutes in downtown Bothell on Wednesday afternoon December 6, 1916. This is when four bandits robbed the Bothell State bank of $5,000 and sped down the Pacific Highway toward Lake Forest Park after firing several shots into the air. Deputies with two bloodhounds were sent after the bandits and after a short time, found the getaway car at Lake Forest Park mired in the mud. About a mile from the abandoned car they found the coats, hats and masks they used in the robbery. Footprints which were found suggested they split the money and went their separate ways. The bloodhounds failed to find any good scent, and after leading them a mile toward Lake Ballinger they gave up pursuit.

The sheriff said if the robbers knew the lay of the land they may have been able to get out of the woods by the next day, and that's what the sheriff thought had happened. If he was wrong they would have a 2 to 1 chance of of getting lost. The area around Lake Forest Park was covered with thick timber and undergrowth with abandoned logging roads and trails which crisscrossed though it. Most of the roads were dead ends and many have become lost out there.

Harry Morie was an early day Uber driver and he was hired by two men in Seattle at 2nd Ave, and Jackson St. for $3 an hour. This was about 1pm on Wednesday the 6th. Harry then drove the men to Fremont and two more men got in at the Stone Way bridge. One of them was carrying a handbag. They told Morie to drive to Bothell and stop at the end of the main street. When they got there, three of them got out of the car. They said they wanted to see some friends. One waited in the car.

They went into the bank and after about ten minutes they suddenly ran back to the car. They had their guns out and Harry right then, realized this wasn't a joyride. The robbers jumped into the car and yelled at him to "drive like hell," and then they fired several shots into the air as the car sped off. Morie put the pedal to the metal and took off down the Pacific Highway toward Kenmore reaching a speed of 60 miles per hour.  He was then ordered to turn off the highway and take the Rowe-Waddell mill road which led into Lake Forest Park. About 4 miles down the road the car got stuck in the mud. The robbers then got out of the car and told poor Morie to hold his hands up and keep them up or they would shoot him. Morie, not taking any chances continued to hold his hands up as the robbers fled into the forest. When the deputies found him over an hour later, poor Morie still had his hands up.

The Seattle-Bothell-Everett Highway

In the fall of 1919 under the Seattle north appropriation a contract was let for the clearing, grading, and draining of 4.82 miles between Seattle and Lake Forest Park. The contract for this work was awarded to J. L. Smith of Seattle on September 15, 1919, for $121,291.72. The work was completed on August 1, 1920.

In 1922 the grading work between the University bridge and Kenmore was completed. This new and improved highway was designated "Victory Way," in remembrance of the fallen World war I soldiers. On March 7, 1922 work began on the concrete paving of this new highway from Lake Forest Park south toward Seattle. The roadway was 27 feet wide and was completed in October of 1922.

By 1926 the Pacific Highway between Seattle and Everett was a continuously paved road. There were still places which still had the original brick paving. On June 11, 1928 work began on widening 2.20 miles of brick pavement Between Seattle and the Haller lake road. The existing brick pavement was 19 feet wide and the contractor added 9 feet of asphalt pavement to each side of the road. They also had to level many of the bricks to smooth out the surface. This work was completed on August 22, 1928.

The Bothell Branch of the Sunset Highway

In February of 1925 the Bothell Branch of the Sunset Highway was signed into law. This route was officially known as Primary State Highway 2 BO (PSH 2 BO). The section was also called the North Branch of the Sunset Highway. This road ran from Fall City to Redmond where the route turned north towards Woodinville, and then eastward to Bothell to connect with the Pacific Highway. This new route greatly helped the towns of Redmond, Woodinville and Bothell with increased traffic and tourism. In 1927, the local Bothell newspaper was touting the North Branch as a better route around the lake, because it had no hills to climb or dangerous curves to negotiate. The route is a few miles shorter and did become popular, although it remained just a branch road.

The Missing Link

In 1926, the Pacific Highway was rerouted north from Seattle onto Aurora Ave. bypassing Bothell. This left the section of the highway between Seattle and Bothell with no official designation. By 1927, the Bothell newspaper was calling for this section to be renamed the “Puget Sound Highway,” and in the letter they told the Bothell Commercial Club to “please take notice.” The newspaper was also saying that in two years one cannot go any place without passing through Bothell. By 1928, there was talk about extending the Bothell Branch all the way to Seattle on the old Pacific Highway alignment. 

Nothing would be done and the highway was in limbo. Then four years later in 1932 after the Aurora bridge had opened, discussion about the extension came back into the spotlight. Then in 1937 five years later, the designation to extend the Bothell Branch of the Sunset Highway to the city limits of Seattle was adopted.