The Real Viaduct Compromise

Brendan Kiley writes, eloquently:

But there is a small, beautiful compromise in the viaduct—during its construction, in 1953, three inches of the guardrail on the southbound side were cut away to accommodate a brick building standing at Bell and Western. Those few inches of brick, gently pushing into the viaduct, are precious—a cease-fire zone between the libertines and the scolds, a place where Seattle stops arguing with itself.

I hadn't noticed this before. But there it is, plain as day:

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Neat.