OLYMPIA, Wash. - Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday asked Washington's bridge inspectors for a quick report on the state's 3,000 bridges, especially any that are similar to the span that collapsed in Minneapolis.

"Safety is always my top priority with regard to our roads and bridges," the governor said. "While we do not know the cause of the collapse in Minnesota, this is a reminder to everyone in the country that infrastructure is important.

"Our priority is to ensure the safety and maintenance of infrastructure in our state."

Officials say the state already has a rigorous inspection program that catches all of the bridges at least once every two years -- and more frequently if they're on a watch list, like the Alaskan Way Viaduct and 520 floating bridge in the Seattle area.

Seattle is already taking quick action by inspecting two similarly built spans: The North Queen Anne Bridge between Second Avenue North and Nob Hill Avenue North, and the Jose P. Rizal Bridge on 12th Avenue S. between S. Charles and S. Weller streets.

Seattle DOT bridge director Richard Miller, who's in charge of maintenance on Seattle's 149 bridges, ordered the probe Thursday morning as a precaution.

"Those bridges were inspected in 2006 so we feel good about their condition but we are going out to be safe and look at those bridges right now," said Miller.

Seattle DOT says it already keeps a close eye on the Alaskan Way Viaduct and five other city bridges, with electronic monitors.

"We are a city of bridges," said Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, "and it is vital to keep every one of those spans safe, strong and sound. Our program for inspecting and repairing bridges is one of the best in the nation and we will continue to make the investments needed to ensure our bridges remain in good shape now and for the years to come."

Most local bridges are made of concrete like the Viaduct or the 520 floating bridge, but other spans -- like the I-5 Ship Canal or Aurora Bridge -- fall under DOT control.

Interim Washington Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond says the Minneapolis bridge collapse is the kind of accident that engineers worry about.

Hammond and state bridge engineer Jugesh Kapur, however, said they are confident all the bridges in Washington are safe because of regular inspections.

City of Seattle

The Aurora Avenue Bridge (George Washington Memorial) crossing the ship canal in Seattle

"We feel very strongly that our bridges are safe because if we find something on a bridge that indicates there's some concern we will close it or we will restrict weight limits on it," Hammond told KING 5 News Thursday morning.

The Minneapolis bridge was a steel-arched bridge, built in 1967.

"You don't see those kinds of steel-arch bridges built any more, it's kind of an old technology," said Hammond. "In our state, we have the Ship Canal Bridge and the Aurora Avenue Bridge right here Seattle that are similar type structures."

When asked if those bridges are safe, Hammond agreed they were perfectly "safe."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said "my heart sank" when she saw news of the bridge collapse Wednesday night. "I realized it could be anybody, anywhere."

Murray, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Appropriations subcommittee, said the collapse reminded her "how absolutely critical it is to rebuild our infrastructure" nationwide. More than 70,000 bridges across the country are rated structurally deficient, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion.

Murray touted a bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee that would provide $40.2 billion in federal aid to highways - a $631 million increase over the president's budget request. The bill includes $5 billion for highway bridge replacement, a $900 million increase over current spending, Murray said.

President Bush had threatened to veto the bill, but Murray said he should reconsider.

Asked about the possibility of other collapses around the country -- including Seattle's earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct, Murray said: "I'm deeply worried. Everybody should be. There hasn't been the leadership at the top level we need," referring to the president and transportation secretary. "We need an assessment quickly of what the needs are, and then we need to make the investment."

A federal database showed the 40-year-old Minneapolis bridge had been rated as "structurally deficient" in 2005 and possibly in need of replacement, the Star Tribune reported citing the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory.

Transportation officials say they inspect each of our state's 3,000 bridges every two years. Right now more than 12 percent of them, almost 400, are considered "structurally deficient."

But the state's transportation secretary says that's not necessarily reason for concern:

"What you need to understand is that a deficiency might be something that is not critical to the structural integrity of that bridge. It could be a bolt that is out of alignment that you have to come back and repair later. It could be something pretty insignificant but that isn't the way the structure was built and it isn't in the condition that it originally was. We come back and repair those," she said.

Transportation officials say the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Highway 520 Floating Bridge in Seattle are the structures most at risk.

"I lose sleep over the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 Bridge because of the vulnerabilities that we know of," said Kapur.

KING 5 NEWS looked at federal data on Western Washington bridges. A score of 50 percent or less means the bridge might need to be replaced. The I-35W bridge in Minnesota scored right at that 50 percent mark. The 520 bridge scored a close 52.5 percent.

Even more disturbing, the Alaskan Way Viaduct scored less than 20 percent.

Seattle's average bridge age is 55-years-old, and Seattle DOT says they visually inspect them every six months to a year,

Miller says Seattle DOT is paying close attention to both the 45th Street Viaduct by University Village and the Magnolia Bridge. Both are slated for renovation or replacement, especially any that are similar to the span that collapsed in Minneapolis.

KING

The 700-foot-long Elwha River Bridge in Clallam County, Wash. was closed a month ahead of scheduled replacement work due to the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

Clallam County officials have also ordered a 94-year old steel-truss bridge over the Elwha River to close a month ahead of schedule as a precaution.

Ross Tyler, a county engineer, says the county decided to err on the side of safety in closing the bridge a month early.

Demolition of the 700-foot span is slated to begin in September to make way for a 16 million dollar replacement span, due to open in 2009.

A structural analysis of the bridge several years ago showed it was safe for passenger cars and the county set a weight limit of six tons.

The one-lane bridge was built in 1913 and has a pair of 200-foot steel-truss main spans over the Elwha Canyon, west of Port Angeles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.