The viaduct is dying today (at 10 p.m.) In the wake of this loss, please appreciate this cultural moment it facilitated in 1986.

Before the Seattle Police Department was busy jumping and jiving to Macklemore downtown, they were testing their creative chops in other ways like, say, mocking homeless people and making light of police brutality for a training video.

From the Slog post from the video, released in 2013:

This afternoon, interim Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel simultaneously released and apologized for a 27-year-old police training video he participated in that showed a group of officers mocking homeless people in song.

"I regret that I did it and I regret the embarrassment it caused the department and the profession," Chief Pugel said today. "Any person would be offended by it, especially those who work to end homelessness or who are homeless."

The 1986 video, which I've posted below, shows a group of Seattle police officers dressed as homeless people living, drinking, and being comically beaten by officers underneath the viaduct, set to the tune of The Drifters 1964 hit, Under the Boardwalk, but with lyrics such as: Under the Viaduct/Down by the bay/We'll be drinking our T-Bird all through the day...

SPD destroyed all copies (except one) of the video. Now, we're destroying all copies of the viaduct. Rest in peace, "Under the Viaduct." It will live on forever, the admittedly-okay choreography but ostensibly awful themes seared into my retinas. Its catchy tune will haunt my dreams.

Goodbye, viaduct.