Tolling on 520 has begun, meaning that it could cost you as much as five bucks to get across Lake Washington. Obviously, if you work at Microsoft, the old adage, “You’ve got to spend money to make money,” applies most vigorously. But the rest of us must make a decision. Is it worth it?
While the Eastside is a lovely place to live and work, there isn’t much over there you’d go out of your way to see. No Eastside location appears on this Top 10 Washington Attractions list, nor on this one or this one or this one. The closest thing the Eastside has to a unique destination is the underrated Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art. I say underrated because I’ve never seen anyone rate it and it does at least seem to exist.
A couple of top Northwest outdoor attractions — Snoqualmie Falls, Mount Si, the Issaquah Alps — must be reached by crossing Lake Washington, but they hardly qualify as being on the “Eastside” as we commonly think of it. Besides, you take I-90 to get to those, and I-90 remains completely free!
Restaurants are a different matter. Two of Zagat’s top 10 Seattle-area restaurants–Herbfarm, in Woodinville, and Cafe Juanita, in Kirkland–are best reached via 520. But if you’re eating at Cafe Juanita or Herbfarm, I’m thinking that parting with $5 isn’t likely to cause undue financial strain.
For those of us who prefer to keep our dinner tabs in the double-digits, the best reason to pay $5 to drive over the Lake Washington Floating Bridge might be simply this: to drive over the Lake Washington Floating Bridge!
Consider: It is actually the largest floating bridge in the world! Due to the fact that the rest of the world stupidly thinks waterways look better without pavement on them, our area has a near-monopoly in the longest-floating-bridge rankings. Four of the world’s five largest floating bridges are in Washington state, with only Guyana’s Demerara Harbor Bridge interloping on our floating bridge dominance. 520 is #1.
Just think, as you drive across, that no one in the entire world has ever driven an vehicle across pavement that’s floating on water further than you are at that moment! (Until we blow Guyana out of the top five with a bridge across Lake Washington lengthwise.) For only $5!
As you may know, you can reduce the cost of your world-record-tying voyage by traveling at non-peak hours. From 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., there is no toll to drive across 520. If you must travel during the day, you will pay pay less if buy the state’s pre-paid tolls card, the “Good to Go!” Pass, which was named by a committee of heavily caffeinated seventh-grade boys. The $5 peak-time price is only $3.50 if you pre-pay–and that $1.50 you save could pay for an extra drop of wine at Herb Farm.