SHINE — The Hood Canal Bridge is closed.
Workers promptly blocked access to the floating bridge at 8 p.m. Thursday, clamping the main North Olympic Peninsula transportation lifeline to Puget Sound for three full days.
Several hundred cars crossed the bridge in the final hour before its closure.
About a dozen Shine-area residents showed up with binoculars around their necks as closing time approached.
“We should have brought lawn chairs,” said Frank Wyatt of Paradise Bay.
They cheered and waved at motorists who crossed the bridge in the final 15 minutes.
Many spectators laughed and raised their thumbs up as last-minute commuters drove by honking.
Scheduled to last until 4 a.m. Monday, the closure is the first of two scheduled in August as part of the Hood Canal Bridge’s estimated $285 million improvement.
The second three-day closure is scheduled from 8 p.m. Aug. 21 to 4 a.m. Aug. 25 to replace the approach span on the Jefferson County side.
State Department of Transportation officials hope to replace and widen the 44-year-old east floating half of the bridge by the end of 2009.
The 1.5-mile-long span connects the North Olympic Peninsula with Kitsap County and state ferries to Seattle and Edmonds.