Following my recent return trip to Washington state, I made a goal for myself to locate and visit every Twin Peaks film location that exists. There is a lot of ground to cover, specially with three seasons, a full-length film and several official-but-not-necessarily-canon books. It is my dream and I will do it (kind of like hiking all the tall mountains in the world). With that said, this deleted scene of a Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department vehicle crossing a bridge doesn’t appear in the series, yet the film location where it was shot has an important connection to an iconic location.
WHERE IS THE TWIN PEAKS SHERIFF’S VEHICLE ON BRIDGE LOCATED?
On October 12, 2019, I made an early morning excursion to photograph the exterior of the Palmer House in Monroe, Washington.
You know this exterior location from Seasons 1 and 2 of the series.
The house is located at 534 South Lewis Street (exact coordinates are 47°50’58.2″N 121°58’17.0″W), which is just down the street from the Welcome to Monroe sign.
I recently shared how trees across the street from the Palmer house drew me to another film location of a river that is used in Season 1 and 2. That same presence must have guided me to the bridge.
C.C. DEVERS BRIDGE IN MONROE, WASHINGTON
After photographing the Skykomish River, I headed out of town on South Lewis Street toward an old 1950s-style green bridge. As I was driving over the bridge, I realized this was the bridge from the Atmospheric Scene, not the Meadowbrook Way Bridge.
I had wrongly identified the Meadowbrook Bridge as the one from the Atmospheric Scenes, which is the bridge seen in Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
So I turned the car around and returned to the spot where I think they captured the footage. The coordinates are 47°50’48.5″N 121°58’14.7″W.
The smaller red circle is where the crew was stationed, while the larger red circle is where the Sheriff’s vehicle crosses the bridge.
If the Sheriff’s vehicle was in Monroe for this scene, I wonder what else they shot in the area with that car. I’m imagining more at the Palmer House (similar to Blue Pine Lodge/Kiana Lodge or the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department/Weyerhaeuser Saw Mill). But I digress.
HISTORY OF CLARENCE C. DEVERS BRIDGE
The May 23, 1957 edition of the Monroe Monitor announced the name of the bridge.
The short article on the front page read:
“Kiwanis Announces Lewis St. Bridge to be Named C.C. Devers Bridge
At a surprise announcement during the Monroe Kiwanis club noon-luncheon yesterday (May 22, 1957) it was revealed that the new Lewis street bridge of the Skykomish river, now under construction, will be known as the “Clarence C. Devers” bridge.
The announcement was made by Lee Lewis, chairman of the Kiwanis public affairs committee, upon the basis of information provided by Robert H. Follis via William A. Bugge, state director of highways.
Members of the Kiwanis had previously made the request that the bridge by named after Devers because of his 21 years of outstanding road work with both the Snohomish County Chapter and Kiwanis road committee.
An appropriate plaque so designating the bridge will be installed at the completion of the structure.”
On May 24, 1957, the Everett Daily Herald published this photo of Mr. Devers being notified at that Kiwanis Club meeting.
Thanks to BridgeHunter.com, we have a picture of the plaque. Their website also listed that this was the fourth bridge constructed in this spot. The Devers bridge replaced a bridge built in 1915. The length of the largest span: 339.9 ft. and it has a total length of 582.0 ft. It’s also called “WA203 Skykomish River Bridge” or the “Lewis Street Bridge.”
Devers was born on August 1, 1891 and died on December 23, 1964.
He moved to Monroe from Rapid City, South Dakota in 1921. There, he married Elvira (Vera) Schalkau Devers (1888-1959) in 1925. She passed at the age of 70 on April 24, 1959. Clarence would married Helen Steil around 1961.
I also found a picture of Mr. Devers’ gravestone by Paul Everitt at the Old Fellows Cemetery in Monroe, Washington.
THE MISSING PIECE – TWIN PEAKS SHERIFF’S VEHICLE ON BRIDGE
The brief (I mean BRIEF) scene begins with the Sheriff’s vehicle with its headlights on at the far end of the bridge.
I should have realized that the Meadowbrook Bridge wasn’t the correct bridge due to the bridge supports in the water. They doesn’t match the bridge above, and the span at the C.C. Devers bridge is much longer.
Tree growth in the area prevented me from getting an exact match but the image above gives you a good idea of how it looks today.
The vehicle continues along the bridge, passing over the Skykomish River. By the way, that river will look familiar in another article.
The scene ends with the car about halfway across the bridge.
I’m guessing the crew could have shot this scene early in the morning (why the headlights were still on). They were in Monroe for an extended period as there are both day and nighttime shots of the Palmer house.
According to another film location website for Amazon’s The Man in The High Castle, the Pilot episode in 2014 also used the Clarence C. Devers bridge.
What a treat to find something so obscure with a nice connection to the 1950s. I really enjoyed driving across these historic bridges throughout western Washington state.
