There are lots of unfinished ramps of interchanges out there, for example one in Seattle on 520 near Lake Washington. It was for a north-south freeway that never materialized due to "Freeway Fatigue" a sort of Northwest backlash that occurred in the late 1960s and early 70s that killed many projects in Seattle and Portland. NIMBYism too.
Thanks to David Backlin for doing some research on this one! Now we have our answer.
According to Scott Nuzum, the extra lanes were to be part of a highway interchange at US 69 and E. National, but the exit was never built.
So while the bridge itself is not historic, it is of some interest to the Roadgeek community due to the abandoned interchange.
There are many explainations for the railings none of which make it historic.
1) The bridge was designed for future growth but all they lanes aren't needed now so they put the inside rails to direct traffic for now.
2) Also there may be a new ramp or future projects planned and once completed they will remove the inside railing
Either way at least you had a reason, although not very good one to post this. I give you a 3 ou of 100. That's an improvement from the other million bridges you post which are 0 out of 100.
Sheldon:
I have wondered the same thing while driving across this bridge. I don't have an answer, but perhaps the road was re-aligned slightly and the bridge was widened.
There's something funny about this bridge. This is why I'm going to count it as historic. It has four railings on top. Wonder why?
I wouldn't worry about it Sheldon.......That was posted over 6 months ago, and it's been pretty quiet since then.....