The Seahawks are going to the Superbowl once again and their flag is flying proudly over Gilcrest Auto Center on South Tacoma Way in Tacoma.
The Seahawks Flag over Gilcrest Auto
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Tag Archives: cars
Tacoma Avenue South Bridge
It seems like every time my family takes the Tacoma Avenue South Bridge, we wait for a traffic light. And if dear husband is in the car he starts griping about the bridge and how he hates it. He is convinced that it will go down in an earthquake. It’s to the point where even if he isn’t in the car, dear daughter and I will look at each other and say “I hate this bridge!”, but then we laugh.
It turns out dear husband is right (I hate when that happens!). According to a 5/25/13 article in the News Tribune, the Tacoma Avenue South over the NPRR (Northern Pacific Railroad) and South Tacoma Way has a sufficiency rating of 7. A rating of 100 means an entirely sufficient bridge, so 7 is really bad. In fact there is only one bridge in Pierce County that is worse and it is the SR 167 over the Puyallup River with a rating of 2. The Tacoma Avenue Bridge has two lanes and was constructed in 1930. It has a daily of over 10,000 vehicles.
Chris Larson, the city of Tacoma’s engineering division manager for public works, said the Tacoma Avenue South bridge will be closed for about 15 months starting in October 2014. The project is expected to cost $11.5 million, of which $11.2 million will come from state and federal grants.
LeMay Car Museum
The family took advantage of Art Walk night by going to the LeMay Car Museum at 2702 East D., Tacoma. This is the last time they will be participating in Art Walk and instead they have an initiative to put tickets into the hands of low income and military families. The museum was as wonderful in the inside as it looks from the outside It was good to listen to dear husband explaining the different cars to dear daughter. They had one of my first cars (a 1966 Mustang), a car I’d really like (a Mini Cooper) and my dream car (a gorgeous Jaguar).
Sione’s Auto Repair
Sione’s Auto Repair at 1315 South 38th has a cool sign. The building was constructed in 1956.
A 1967 Amphicar at Sharp & Sons USA of Yesterday Motors
This car on display at USA of Yesterday Motors at 455 St. Helens, Tacoma, is one of 500 remaining Amphicars left in existence. The informational sign said that these amphibious cars are capable of crossing between England and France!
The USA of Yesterday building was constructed in 1948 and contains 61,000 square feet of space. It was originally known as the Mueller-Harkins Motor Co. Building and Silas E. Nelsen was the architect. It was a Buick Dealership. It is now U.S.A. of Yesterday Motor Car Co. (see the link below) and besides showroom space has a large banquet room in the style of the 1950s. In 2007 there was talk of demolishing the property to make way for a downtown grocery store, but that didn’t happen.
A picture of the building from 1950 can be found at Tacoma Public Library http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1image.asp?j=2&o=2&n=24408&i=8170#text
1912 Buick in the showroom.
Vintage Wheels at LeMay Family Collection
There are over 500 vintage vehicles at the LeMay Family Collection at 325 152nd Street East, Tacoma, WA 98445. Our family signed up for the 1:00 tour and I figured it would be over by 2:00 so the next group could begin. But they must stagger tours because ours went until 3:30! The tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and kids under 5 are free. A tour guide takes the groups through, which is great because he was happy to talk about the cars, tell stories about how they came to be at LeMay and answer questions!.
Their literature says that they have the largest privately owned vehicle and memorabilia collection in the world. I believe it! Instead of writing more, I’m just going to post a bunch of photos 🙂
The LeMay website can be found here: http://www.lemaymuseum.org/
