Lake Washington Project
With more than 1,000 targets of interest identified in Lake Washington this project has required years of effort. Started in 2006 this ongoing project has resulted in the location and survey of hundreds of wrecks.
Lake Washington has a long maritime history and is uniquely suited to wreck exploration. The deep, cold, fresh water preserves most wrecks and has kept them intact for hundreds of years. This has allowed for the successful exploration of some of the Northwests oldest know wrecks.
Seattlites tend to pride themselves on being active outdoors people and the knowledge of what lies beneath the water surrounding the local cities is a popular topic. Here are some general statistics:
- Lake Washington is 22 miles long and covers more than 21,000 acres.
- Eight military planes crashed in the lake with 7 remaining on the bottom.
- There may be two biplanes still in the lake waiting to be found.
- Three minesweepers rest in the lake North of the 520 bridge.
- Many segments of the old I-90 floating bridge remain on the bottom.
- Hundreds of historical work vessels, ferries, sailing ships, and barges remain in the lake.
- The lake is nearly uniformly 200' deep with a small section 215' deep.
- The water temperature on the bottom of the lake remains a constant 42 degrees year round.
- Natural light rarely reaches deeper than 70 feet deep.
Project Phase:
Long Range Image of Barge and Minesweeper
The imaging of Lake Washington has been completed with long range, high resolution side scan imagery. Using that data to identify targets of interest, close range, high resolution side scan imaging is being done for each of the potential targets. The decision was made to systematically work from the North end of the lake to the South covering every target along the way.
Once imagery is complete those targets believed to be wrecks of interest are added to the dive schedule. Each dive in the lake is a technical dive and requires decompression and surface support. This significantly slows the speed with which wrecks can be explored.
Downscan of Minesweeper