“Photographing the tunnel was grand, even in the smallest detail”
Catherine Bassetti was born in Seattle and grew up in the eastern foothills overlooking the city.
In college, a study-abroad opportunity took her to Madrid, Spain, where her career began in earnest as a photographer. Over the next 15 years in Europe, she worked in commercial advertising, and photojournalism.
Returning to the Northwest, she added Graphic Design to her repertoire and opened her photography business for corporate, public, and private clientele. Documenting Seattle’s new tunnel was, in a small way, her own contribution to the city where her parents and grandparents were part of Seattle’s early growth and development.
now and then
From cramped corners to dizzy heights, ‘Supertunnel’ story shines.
By Jean Sherrard
Bassetti’s dazzling illustrated book, “Supertunnel: Building Seattle’s State Route 99 — Journey from Light to Light,” provides a backstage view of the project’s colossal scale. As a re-imagined waterfront nears completion on the tunnel’s fifth anniversary, Bassetti’s luminous photos illustrate trials, tribulations and triumphs. “It provides a detailed analysis of the complete ‘design-build’ of the tunnel,” she says, “as well as the groundbreaking engineering and complex problem-solving that took place.”
With dozens of vertiginous and expansive views, “Supertunnel” details the unique journey of documenting a vast, structural tour de force of engineering. By revealing views hitherto unseen, it finds beauty in the depths and heights. From start to finish, the book follows the tunnel’s breathless path — as the book’s optically attuned subtitle aptly states, from light to light.
THEN: The unfinished south portal of the tunnel, in 2015. The final cost of construction, after significant delays, was $3.3 billion. July, 2015 (Catherine Bassetti). NOW: Catherine Bassetti stands above the completed south portal. Her insider’s perspective offers a window into “the years of unsung work it took to create the now two-minute drive through the tunnel.” December, 2023 (Jean Sherrard)
For extensive ongoing coverage of Seattle’s fascinating past, visit the archives of Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard at: https://pauldorpat.com/
“I can say two things about Catherine as a photographer. One, she was absolutely fearless about going places that other people would have thought twice about, like riding up and down in that ‘man-basket’. Some of those videos were shot double the height of the Viaduct, all the way up to the top of the boom of the cranes. She went everywhere to do whatever shot she wanted. Also, she could shoot a pile of muddy cables and make it look like art. ”
— Comment by Carl Neagoy, Tunnel Inspector, History Cafe event at the Museum of History and Industry, Seattle
Photo: The author on the catwalk, photographing the repaired ‘Bertha’ and Center Drive Unit as it is returned underground.
It Began…
“One morning in late January 2014, I packed my camera gear in the car and drove to the waterfront, alongside the Alaskan Way Viaduct, a road I’d taken many times before. But on this cold, drizzly day something new was afoot, as I parked at Pier 48 and walked to the trailers lining the underpass at South Dearborn Street.
The lot was a sprawling open space, covered with rows of neatly stacked giant curved concrete segments, above which hovered an ominous tower gantry. We signed in, walked to the landing of the scaffold, and started down the 100 feet of winding metal steps. Focused on keeping pace and not tripping over my steel-toe boots, it wasn’t until we reached the ground that I had my first look at... the beast. The mouth of the tunnel was a breathtaking sight. Surrounded by towers of pilings pegged into the earth, holding back the earth and groundwater, we walked up and into the cavernous dark hole.
By the time we walked our way back through the tunnel into the open air, my head was spinning. I had a million questions.
Little did I know at the time that they would all be answered over what turned into six years documenting the historic project and creating this book.
There was no shortage of opportunity to make the innate come alive in the lens. I met skilled men and women whose energy was unstoppable and work ethic admirable; with whom I made enduring friendships. This book came to life as they shared their own experiences on the job.This was one of the most surprising, demanding, fulfilling, and thought-provoking assignments of my career. My hope is that readers can sense the magnitude of dedicated labor and engineering that built Seattle’s new tunnel.”
— Catherine Bassetti
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