Welcome home, Bertha!

Three and a half months ago we wrote about Big Bertha, the world’s largest-diameter tunneling machine who, after traveling 5,000 miles, is finally making her grand entrance into Elliot Bay today.  

Built in Osaka, Japan, the five-story-tall, 7,000 tons boring machine that will dig the SR 99 tunnel beneath downtown Seattle, had to be taken apart into 41 pieces to load her on the Jumbo Fairpartner and begin her two-week journey on March 19.  

As she was going through Port Townsend, at around 10:30 this morning, she tweeted (yes, Bertha has a Twitter account): 

She’s expected to reach Seattle at around noon so you could grab lunch in the area and witness her arrival. Check out the DOT’s viewer’s guide (click on the image for a larger map):

But if you’re not lucky enough to catch the action in person, the DOT will have a live webcam pointed at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 46, once the ship has berthed, so you can watch her journey unfold from anywhere.

Read this story in Spanish.