Editing Kennewick, Washington (section)

===Post-war development===
[[File:Blue Bridge from Columbia Park.jpg|thumb|The [[Blue Bridge (Washington)|Blue Bridge]] as seen from [[Columbia Park (Tri-Cities)|Columbia Park]].]]
Kennewick and the greater Tri-Cities area experienced significant changes during [[World War II]]. In 1943, the United States opened the [[Hanford Site|Hanford nuclear site]] in and north of Richland. Its purpose originally was to help produce nuclear weaponry, which the US was trying to develop. People came from across the United States to work at Hanford, who were unaware of what they were actually producing. They were only told that their work would help the war effort.<ref name=HanfordHistory>{{cite web |url=https://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/HanfordHistory |title=Hanford History |publisher=[[United States Department of Energy]] |access-date=December 30, 2019 |archive-date=September 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902190024/https://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/HanfordHistory |url-status=live }}</ref> The federal government constructed housing in Richland, but many employees of that site then [[commuting|commuted]] from Kennewick. The [[plutonium]] refined at the Hanford Site was used in the [[Fat Man]] bomb, which was dropped in [[Nagasaki]] in 1945. As the Hanford Site's purpose has evolved, there has continually been a tremendous influence from the site on the workforce and economy of Kennewick.<ref>{{cite news |title=Early Hanford Workers Remember Dust, Security |last=Cary |first=Annette |url=https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article32146359.html |work=Tri-City Herald |date=October 6, 2013 |access-date=December 30, 2019 |archive-date=December 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231175151/https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article32146359.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=PI/> Due to activity at the Hanford Site, the [[1950 United States census|1950 census]] recorded major population growth in the Tri-Cities, with Richland overtaking to become the largest city in the region. From 1940 to 1950, the population of Richland grew from 247 residents to 21,793 residents, while Pasco gained from 3,913 to 10,114, and Kennewick increased from 1,918 to 10,085.<ref>{{cite news |last=Fussell |first=E. B. |date=July 23, 1950 |title=King, Pierce Account for More Than Half of State's Census Gain |page=38 |work=[[The Seattle Times]]}}</ref>

An effort to build a new bridge began in 1949 and was funded in 1951 because of increasing traffic between Kennewick and Pasco, largely due to commuters heading to and from the Hanford Site in Richland and [[McNary Dam]], which was under construction near [[Umatilla, Oregon]]. The two-lane Green Bridge was the only one for automobiles across the Columbia River in the Tri-Cities at the time, and the 10,000 cars crossing it daily had created traffic problems. A new four-lane divided highway bridge, dubbed the [[Blue Bridge (Washington)|Blue Bridge]], opened in 1954 less than {{convert|2|mi|km}} upstream from the Green Bridge.<ref>{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Roland |date=July 30, 1954 |title=New Columbia River Bridge Linking Tri-Cities Opened |page=1 |work=[[Walla Walla Union-Bulletin]]}}</ref> The [[Cable Bridge]] opened between Kennewick and Pasco in 1978 and was built to replace the Green Bridge. However, demolishing the Green Bridge proved to be controversial. Those seeking to preserve the bridge for historical reasons were able to stall the demolition, but it was eventually torn down in 1990.<ref>{{cite book |title=Great American Bridges and Dams |first=Donald C. |last=Jackson |author2=McCullough, David G. |year=1988 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=0-471-14385-5 |pages=68–70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3WWvdOUcFEC&q=Pasco-Kennewick+Bridge+1922&pg=PA314 |access-date=November 28, 2020 |archive-date=March 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316152012/https://books.google.com/books?id=v3WWvdOUcFEC&q=Pasco-Kennewick+Bridge+1922&pg=PA314 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>