Sunset D.I. I 405 & I 90

Seattleprojectionist commented about Sunset D.I. I 405 & I 90 on May 20, 2019 at 12:27 pm

When this drive in was built, the two freeways shown were two lane roads. The theater was out in the country. U.S. Highway 10 became Interstate 90 running east and west, across the bridge shown at the top of the picture. What became Interstate 405 was State Highway 2A, running north and south. I was told by the projectionist working there at the time that when the two highways were rebuilt and enlarged in the late 1960’s, SRO theaters sued the State of Washington claiming that the lighting installed along the highways washed out the image on the screen. The State of Washington lost the case and was forced to pay for the installation of new brighter Xenon lamphouses to replace the original carbon arc lamps. A corner of the drive in field was taken for the widening of I-405.