Status: Resolved

Established: January 1st, 1918

Established By: Daughters Of The American Revolution

The bridge was (formerly) named in honor of U.S. Army Captain George Pickett in 1918 who was stationed in Bellingham in the 1850s but enlisted with the Confederacy and fought for his home state of Virginia during the Civil War. The city removed a plaque bearing his name following racist clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. Pickett’s name is known in U.S. History for “Pickett’s Charge,” a devastatingly unsuccessful (bloodbath) Confederate military action led by him on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Bellingham Planning and Community Development Department did extensive research for two years and concluded that:

"The current Pickett Bridge — named after Pickett by the City Council in 1918 — isn’t the one built by his men.

Pickett was given the task, in summer 1858, of building a military road across Whatcom Creek that would connect Fort Bellingham in the north with Fort Steilacoom in the south. 

His men built that bridge over the creek at what would now be Prospect and Ellsworth streets, if those streets were to be extended until they meet.

That bridge lasted about 15 years until 1873, when it was rebuilt. It remained there until about 1903, when it was then replaced with a streetcar trestle, which was removed in 1939.

The bridge that has been the source of controversy for the past two years is on Dupont at Prospect Street. It was built in 1918, near the original military bridge, according to a previous Bellingham Herald story.

The Daughters of the American Revolution put a commemorative bronze plaque on the bridge in September 1920.

“While the naming of the bridge honors George Pickett’s pre-Civil War service in the region, the dedication also specifically honors aspects of George Pickett’s Civil War service.”

The staff report referred to Bellingham Herald stories from a century ago that revealed that his Civil War service was lauded.

It concluded, then, that Pickett Bridge name “is inappropriate and does not reflect the values of the city of Bellingham” because it honored Pickett’s Civil War service.