Maybe it was just me.

But as the Tacoma Landmarks Commission was debating what color to recommend for the renovated Murray Morgan Bridge, I couldn’t stop humming the Rolling Stones.

“I see a gray bridge and I want it painted black, No colors anymore I want them to turn black.”

Because the bridge is a protected structure, listed on both the local and national historic registers, the color must be reviewed and approved by the commission. The city, at the suggestion of state Department of Transportation cultural resources staff, proposed two colors that were on the bridge when it opened and when it was repainted in the 1940s.

That would be the original black or the later aluminum/silver. Either way, the aluminum truss that runs between the two lift towers would remain, well, aluminum. That’s because it would be too difficult and too costly to powder coat that structure.

The preservation community seemed to favor black.

“Early photos (1920s) of the bridge clearly show an extraordinarily dark paint, most likely black,” wrote Historic Tacoma vice president Caroline Swope. Unless testing of the paint layers indicates something different, “Historic Tacoma fully supports painting the historic bridge in what was likely its original color, black.”

“Railroad bridges, locomotives and engineered iron/steel at that time was customarily painted black with a glossy paint and that seemed to be the treatment first applied to the 11th Street Bridge,” wrote Michael Sullivan.

But commissioner Fred King favored silver because it was the only way the entire bridge, including the overhead truss, would be the same color. Commissioner Pamela Sundell asked if just the horizontal pieces of the truss could be painted black but was told by city public works engineer Tom Rutherford that it would involve the same issues of cost and maintenance as painting the entire truss structure.

Finally a motion was made to recommend black and it passed 7-1 with King voting no.

Two other colors were suggested by residents. Blaine Johnson proposed an orange similar to that on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (and not unlike the burnt orange on the Urban Waters Building beneath the bridge.

Also suggested was a green like the Narrows Bridge. Neither were discussed by commissioners.

The city took ownership of the bridge from the state in 2009. It is using state money originally set aside to demolish and replace the bridge, plus some extra won by local state legislators, to renovate the 98-year-old bridge. A ceremony marking the start of that work is set for April 19. Work will begin the next day when the entire structure will be covered in white shrink wrap to contain paint and other debris that might otherwise fall into the Foss Waterway. A similar wrapping was used during repairs to the Hylebos Bridge.

Once completed, the bridge will be open to both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

One commissioner said he hopes it will once again be celebrated as it was when it opened in 1913. Ken House said he was recently in Duluth, Minn. and saw how its old vertical lift bridge is an icon, “venerated in almost the way Seattle venerates the Space Needle.”

(All renderings courtesy of City of Tacoma public works department)