Bridgetown Coda: The Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1

A while back it occurred to me that I’d been remiss in wrapping up the Bridgetown series with the St John’s Bridge. Of course it did make a neat ending: crossing the most beautiful of the Portland bridges on my birthday, on a truly splendid late summer day. But facts are facts: there are 11 bridges crossing the Willamette River in Portland, so stopping at 10 just won’t pass muster.

Having said that, it must be admitted that the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge is a bit of a special case. It’s owned by the railroad, & isn’t open to the public. It carries both Burlington Northern Santa Fe & Union Pacific freight trains, as well as Amtrak. So there is a chance I’ll be on the bridge someday if I ever happen to take the train up to Seattle.

At any rate, I’d decided that the bridge should be included in the series. Now came the question. How to get more photos of it? I’d taken a couple of decent photographs of the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge when I crossed the St John’s—in fact, the lead photo was taken then & is also a “repeat” here, as it was a Photo of the Week. But I ruled out crossing the St John’s Bridge again to get photos for a couple of reasons: first, the photos would be largely redundant; second, one time on that very high bridge was probably enough for me!

So I took to the internet to determine where I might go to get shots of the bridge, & I found that there’s a place called Harbor View City Park along the Willamette quite close to the railroad bridge. Off I went, camera in backpack, on the #44 bus headed north, for my destination. Now I should observe that, despite studying the maps (I thought) quite carefully, I hadn’t paid strict attention to how to access this park. Since the maps all showed that it was very close to N. Willamette Boulevard, I guessed that access wouldn’t be an issue.

You see where I’m going with this. In fact the park isn’t at all accessible from the part of Willamette Boulevard I was on, namely the area that runs at a 45 degree angle to the bridge! I now know I would have needed to either get off the bus at the University of Portland, or else backtracked, but I compounded the problem by heading in the opposite direction! I did get some shots, tho I was shooting directly into the afternoon sun—contre soleil may make for nice effects in the hands of a professional photographer, but it’s not recommended in the case of us amateurs.

In brief, the facts & figures on the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 are: the bridge opened in 1908, originally as a swing-span bridge, which means that the movable section of the bridge swings out at a right angle to clear a channel for passing ships. At the time it was constructed, the swing span was the longest in the world. This was changed to a vertical lift in 1989, & the vertical lift span of the bridge is still one of the longest & highest in the world. The 5.1 in its name refers to the distance in miles from Portland’s Union Station (originally Hoyt Street Depot.) Thanks, Wikipedia, for those stats!

Next week, with a little luck, the new series I promised to start after the St John’s Bridge post should kick off—hope to see you then! 

The St John’s Bridge: Glorious Acrophobia

OK, here’s the truth: I do actually experience a bit of acrophobia—an odd confession, perhaps, from someone who’s set himself the goal of walking all of Portland’s bridges! But I’m happy to say that I’ve reached that goal; today brings the Bridgetown series to its conclusion.

Make no mistake: The St John’s Bridge is a high structure; its navigational clearance is 205 feet, just 15 feet lower than the Golden Gate Bridge & seven feet lower than the George Washington Bridge (to give some context.) So walking across you are well over 200 feet above the Willamette River!

The view north from the St John's Bridge

I made my trek out to St John’s on Sunday: a gorgeous day here in Portland—clear blue skies, temperatures holding in the mid to upper 70s, & only a gentle breeze blowing. It’s easy to get to the bridge from the east side—several buses will take you within a few blocks of it, & you’ll find yourself in the delightfully funky St John’s neighborhood. St John’s is far to the north in Portland, & was an independent, incorporated city founded in 1847; St John’s was annexed by Portland in 1915, tho some Portland residents I know claim that St John’s isn’t “really Portland.” I find this an odd assertion, since it is literally untrue, & also since I think St John’s is delightfully funky, & I’m quite happy to think of it as part of the city I live in.

The bridge itself is really majestic. The St John’s Bridge opened in 1931; the construction had started in 1929, just before the Stock Market Crash, & the fact that the bridge made a number of construction jobs available was a big boon at the beginning of the Depression. Per Wikipedia:

At the time of its completion, the bridge had:

•     the highest clearance in the nation,
•     the longest prefabricated steel cable rope strands,
•     the tallest steel frame piers of reinforced concrete,
•     the first application of aviation clearance lights to the towers, and
•     longest suspension span west of Detroit, Michigan.

The St. John’s Bridge carries the Route 30 bypass from St John’s to the east to Linnton & beyond on the west side. The most striking feature of the bridge would be the Gothic cathedral-like towers, which actually lend their name to the nearby Cathedral Park.

The Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge, with downtown Portland in the distance to the right

I have to say that I was very aware of the height of this bridge, especially when crossing the north side, which I did first. Maybe by the time I returned on the south sidewalk I was more inured to the height, but I found that much easier going. The sidewalks are ample, & while there’s some bike traffic on the sidewalks, there is a bike lane provided & many cyclists use this. I should note that there is no barrier between the sidewalk & the vehicle traffic.

My one regret about the outing is that I didn’t head down to Cathedral Park, where I could have gotten some shots of the bridge’s under structure; & also I didn’t get a shot of its span, which I believe I could have down from some vantage point in St John’s. I’d meant to go back there yesterday to remedy these oversights, but life—as is its wont—decided to intrude.  You can see a panoramic shot on Wikipedia here.

The Portland bridges are such an amazing component of this wonderful city, & I’m so glad I made a point of walking them all, even if my legs felt a little wobbly a couple of times! As far as ongoing bridge visits are concerned, I’ve made repeat crossings of the Steel Bridge (lower level), the Broadway & the Hawthorne—these are each easy & pleasant walks, & I’m sure I’ll also make use of the Burnside & Morrison Bridges when the opportunity arises. The downtown bridges really are pedestrian friendly & not intimidating. As for the Sellwood, Ross Island & even the glorious St John’s, I suspect my crossings were one time events.

Either next week or the following Wednesday I’ll be starting a new Rose City Wednesday series. Hope to see you then!

The Marquam Bridge from a Distance

The Marquam Bridge in a zoom shot from the OHSU observation deck

It’s Wednesday, so it must be Rose City time! I’m here today with the penultimate installment in the Bridgetown series.

The bridge under consideration today is the Marquam, & it’s the bridge Portlanders love to hate.  Since we’re on foot (either literally or imaginatively) we can’t cross over the bridge: the Marquam carries Interstate 5, & so is closed to pedestrians.

But that’s not why Portlanders generally dislike the bridge; after all, the Fremont Bridge also carries an interstate highway & so also can’t accommodate pedestrians; & the Fremont Bridge is one of the city’s most beloved & iconic structures. The Fremont Bridge, however, is a striking & beautiful piece of architecture—while the Marquam is mostly a generic bridge that you might find along any interstate highway. In fact, dislike of the Marquam, which opened in 1966, had a direct effect on the design of the Fremont Bridge; the Fremont’s glorious, classic architecture was a direct & explicit response to the Marquam. 

The Marquam as seen from the Willamette Greenway

Facts & figures (thanks, Wikipedia): the Marquam is Oregon’s busiest bridge. In design it’s a double-decker steel-truss cantilever bridge; northbound traffic (headed almost due east across the river, then veering north after the crossing) travels on the upper level, while southbound traffic travels on the lower deck.  Again according to Wikipedia, the Marquam bridge carried 139,000 cars daily as of 2008.

There is some talk of doing away with the Marquam Bridge, tho given its importance as a transportation corridor, any replacement would need to be done very judiciously. Oregon House Bill 2032 from 2011 proposed that the Oregon Department of Transportation study how to replace the Marquam Bridge. One idea would be to construct a tunnel beneath the Willamette River, & route I-5 thru that.  This particular proposal is backed by Oregon State Representative Jules Bailey (D-Portland), tho apparently the idea has been kicked around for some time.

The Marquam Bridge from OMSI

The poor Marquam Bridge! It really gets no respect. Mayor Vera Katz in her 2001 State of the City address said, "It’s like having the Berlin Wall dividing east and west, with all the subtle charm of the Daytona 500 smack dab in the middle of our city."

Hope you enjoy the views of the bridge—the shots from the Willamette Greenway were taken during a very pleasant walk along the river this Tuesday—so I can’t say the Marquam has been all bad for me! I also learned from a display at the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry, that the Marquam affords a nesting place for peregrine falcons, which is cool—tho it turns out that the peregrines much prefer the Fremont Bridge & nest there in much greater numbers.

Naturally!

Panoramic view of the Marquam & I-5 from OHSU

How to Find the Ross Island Bridge

The Ross Island Bridge seen from the Springwater Corridor - from an earlier outing!

OK, I get it—it’s not difficult at all to find the Ross Island Bridge; after all, it carries US 26, one of the main arteries thru Portland. It’s not difficult at all—assuming you’re in a motor vehicle.

But I wasn’t on Saturday—of course, these days I rarely am in a motor vehicle, not owning one—& my destination was indeed the Ross Island Bridge as part of the ongoing Bridgetown series. I’d decided to make a real adventure of it—after several days of intense heat, the weather was lovely on Saturday, & I made my way across the Willamette by a combination of riding the MAX light rail & walking, including a stroll across the Broadway Bridge.

That way!

No barrier between the walkway & the westbound lane

But once on W. Broadway, I discovered that the next #9 bus at the first stop wasn’t due for 30 minutes, so I walked on, eventually catching a Portland Streetcar to Portland State University, where I could catch the #9 at a more frequented stop. I’d ridden the #9 frequently last year when I was living in the Southeast & I knew that not only did it cross the Ross Island Bridge, but that one of its eastbound stops was named “Ross Island Bridge.” Obviously, this was my destination.

I digress: the Hooker Street overpass

Except, as I found out to my chagrin when I reached that stop, it wasn’t. One of those Old Vermonter joke punch lines: “You can’t get there from here.” As I was aware, the pedestrian walkway is only on the north side of the bridge, & the eastbound Ross Island Bridge bus stop is on the south side. What I didn’t know: there’s no way to cross Powell Boulevard thru four lanes of very busy traffic. No problem, I said: there has to be a way to backtrack around to the north side.

The Ross Island Cement Company, with Springwater Corridor to the right

Panoramic view north from the bridge: construction on the Carruthers light rail bridge, scheduled to open in 2015

& I’m sure there is—but after a long hike straight uphill in the shadow of the Portland Aerial Tram, I decided that my best bet was to head back to SW Hooker & Powell, where I could once again catch the #9 & head back across the Willamette so I could get onto the bridge on the correct side. This involved crossing the strangely forbidding Hooker Street overpass across Naito parkway, but I survived & eventually found myself on the east side, walking up the long slope that Powell follows to the bridge.

The Ross Island Bridge is not one of Portland’s scenic bridges. It’s functional: a commuter bridge, & also a bridge to carry folks west of the city. & while the walkway is ample, I can’t say it’s a fun or relaxing bridge to cross on foot—as Wikipedia notes: “There is a pedestrian walkway on the north side of the bridge, with no barrier between the sidewalk and the westbound right lane.” 

Portland Aerial Tram Cars passing

Portland Streetcar on SW Moody

No barrier indeed, & lots of traffic. Of course, there was no other pedestrian traffic crowding the walkway & I only passed one bicyclist. There are reasons for this, & it doesn’t simply have to do with finding a way on the bridge!

In terms of facts & figures: the Ross Island Bridge is named after the island that’s directly south of the bridge. It’s a cantilever truss bridge, & as such, the only bridge of its kind in the state of Oregon. The Ross Island Bridge originally opened in 1926.

Ross Island Bridge viewed from the west

The Bridgetown series is winding down. There are only two other public Willamette bridges, one of which is closed to pedestrian traffic (tho I will post about it as I did about the Fremont.) But I think you’ll be happy to know that I went on a scouting expedition yesterday & I believe I have the next series already in mind!

Have a nice Wednesday! May you find all your bridges on the first try!

From a Distance: the Fremont Bridge

The Fremont Bridge as seen from the Broadway Bridge

Happy Wednesday, friends! After a brief hiatus, I’m back on the Rose City Wednesday beat, & looking forward to taking you on more virtual tours of my new hometown—new, but amazingly (to me at least), I’m fast approaching the one-year anniversary of my move here.

Last Saturday was one in a succession of lovely summer days we’ve enjoyed lately in Portland—moderate temperatures, mellow sunshine & rich blue skies, & just the gentlest breeze. Given all this wonderfulness, I decided to go for an urban hike, & left my apartment headed west on a walk that ultimately took me all the way to Powell’s Bookstore over on the west side.

The Fremont Bridge seen from lower Mississippi Ave

I saw many sights along the way, but I decided that rather than describing the hike itself in detail, I’d focus on one of those sights: the Fremont Bridge. The route I took along Interstate Avenue & the Broadway Bridge afforded me some of the best possible views of this structure.

Up until now, my Bridgetown posts have always involved walking one of the Portland bridges, but there are some bridges here that aren’t open to pedestrian traffic because they carry interstate highways. The Fremont Bridge is one of those—it carries Interstate 405, which is an exchange of Interstate 5. Technically, it also carries US route 30, as this route is absorbed by 405 along this stretch (or vice-versa, depending on your point of view.) I-405 connects downtown Portland to North Portland & I-5 proper.

Industrial: The Fremont as seen from Interstate Ave

Also as seen from Interstate: with the Montgomery Park building in the background

The Fremont Bridge was constructed in the 1970s, & the intent from the beginning was to create a visually impressive structure, especially in comparison to the more utilitarian Marquam Bridge to the south. The Fremont Bridge opened November 15, 1973.

As you can probably tell from the photos, the Fremont Bridge is a high & imposing structure; so despite being near the mouth of the Willamette, it has plenty of clearance for commercial ship traffic entering Portland.  The clearance below the Fremont is 175 feet. Structurally, it’s a “tied arch bridge,” & I direct you to this Wikipedia entry for an explanation of that—the arched bridge I get—the rest seems a bit arcane to me, but then, it’s still relatively early in the morning as I write this! Also according to Wikipedia: “It has the longest main span of any bridge in Oregon and is the second longest tied arch bridge in the world (after Caiyuanba Bridge across the Yangtze River, China)”

The Fremont Bridge: iconic, with iconic St John's Bridge in the background

Several of the Portland bridges present iconic images of the city—certainly the Hawthorne & Steel Bridge of the ones we’ve already explored—but the Fremont, along with the St John’s Bridge, which I’ve yet to work up nerve enough to walk, are perhaps the most iconic.

That’s all for this week! Next Wednesday I’ll be taking you folks to a unique local arts & crafts show. & if you’re interested in my unique (I think) mixture of baseball, aesthetics & philosophy, please check out my new Beer League Box Score blog!

Death Defying Acts on the Sellwood Bridge

 When I left you last Rose City Wednesday, dear readers, I’d followed the Springwater Corridor from its beginnings in Portland’s inner southeast all the way out to the far-flung Sellwood neighborhood. The Corridor actually continues past Sellwood, tho there’s a one-mile gap at that point. However, I’d come to Sellwood with one object in mind, & yes, it was related to the ongoing Bridgetown expeditions.

 
 
The Sellwood neighborhood is home to the southernmost of Portland’s Willamette Bridges, the eponymous Sellwood Bridge. In fact, I believed that my goal of walking all eight of Portland’s bridges that are open to pedestrian traffic was in the balance—sometime this summer the old Sellwood Bridge will be undergoing significant construction, & I thought it might be closed for some time. Doing a bit of armchair research for this post, however, I find that’s not true: in fact, according to sellwoodbridge.org, the construction, which will begin this summer & continue thru 2016, is only expected to result in 30-day closures at any given time. 


 

Still, without that knowledge in hand, I undertook the crossing that day, & I can say that I lived to tell the tale. Make no mistake: as it is currently constructed & used, crossing the Sellwood Bridge on foot is not the sort of pleasant walk across the river that one might experience on any of the downtown Portland Bridges. Reasons? 1. This is not a drawbridge, so you’re walking across at a significant height, in case that matters to you; 2. the sidewalk is narrow & is for the accommodation of both bikes & pedestrians; 3. & perhaps most significantly: although there are signs clearly requiring that bicyclists walk their bikes across the bridge—& given the narrowness of the passage, compelling reason for them to do so—at least in my two crossings, I found that the majority of bicyclists don’t obey this directive. Thus, you’re always looking over your shoulder for the next bike (& the bridge is heavily used by bicyclists) & hoping it occurs next to one of the streetlights so you’ll have a place to duck away to relatively safely as the bicyclist goes past you. In fact, there was one other pedestrian on the bridge during my crossing, & he came very close to getting clipped by a bike simply because he neglected to look over his shoulder before moving back into the midst of the sidewalk after standing by the railing to look downriver—I pointed toward the bike for him at the last second & a mishap was avoided. Frankly, I would not like to be hit by any moving object at that height! 4. the bridge is in poor condition: it’s rickety, & just doesn’t feel very safe. In fact, sellwoodbridge.org lists the following “deficiencies”:

• Poor structural condition, with a limited service life
• Vehicle weight restrictions, which have forced an average of 1,400 trucks and buses each day to find a different river crossing route
• Geologic instability on the west end that has damaged the bridge
• Narrow travel lanes with no shoulders or median
• Short stopping distances and lines of sight for motorists
• One narrow sidewalk insufficient for bicyclists and pedestrians
• Poor connections to established trails at each end of the bridge
• Tight ramps at west end that cannot easily accommodate large vehicles
• High risk of structural failure in an earthquake
• A National Bridge Inventory sufficiency rating of 2 out of a possible score of 100

No, I wouldn’t want to be on the current Sellwood Bridge in an earthquake! 

Note peak of Mount Hood just above the blue hatchback

Mount St Helens: nothing like viewing an active volcano from a bridge that's seismically unsound!

You’ll notice I said “two crossings.” In fact I don’t believe there’s any Trimet bus service back north to downtown Portland anywhere near the west end of the bridge. Apparently Trimet buses used to use the bridge for some routes, but that was curtailed when the bridge weight limit was reduced. So once I’d survived the east-west crossing, I decided to head back to Sellwood with the thought that this would be the best bet for getting a bus back in my home direction in a reasonably timely manner. I didn’t know that the #70 bus route runs infrequently even on weekday afternoons! But after some considerable hiking around Sellwood hoping to find another option, it at last occurred to me that I could stand to “take a load off,” & found a bus shelter where I could take a good long 30 minute rest while waiting for the next northbound bus.

& I could say: I walked the Sellwood Bridge & survived!

The Bridgetown Tour Continues! Morrison Bridge

A beautiful May afternoon this past Saturday—the high springtime has come to Portland with tangerine skies & temperatures on the warm side of comfortable. This being the case, the day seemed ideal for another bridge walk, & so I caught the train, then caught the other train (yellow to blue, in a sort of kid’s game of color coded routes), until I found myself on SW Morrison Avenue, right at the edge of downtown proper.

The Morrison Bridge is a major artery in Portland, as it serves as a connector to the two interstate highways that travel thru the city—I-84, which runs east (southeast actually) to Salt Lake City) & I-5, which passes thru Portland on its north/south route between Los Angeles & Seattle. As such, the bridge’s 6 lanes of traffic tend to be bustling—50,000 cars per day cross the Morrison. It’s much less busy than most of the other bridges in terms of public transit, however; only the #15 Belmont bus crosses this bridge.


 
What the Morrison does have is a beautiful walkway/bike path, partitioned off from all that vehicular traffic with a guardrail. It is worth noting that the walkway is only on the southern side of the bridge. There is a narrow walkway on the north side, but as I was crossing, I decided it didn’t look at all inviting, & so I only crossed on the south side. I did see two bicyclists grimly walking their bikes in single file along the north side, but it didn’t look like very much fun at all!


 

The Morrison is also a drawbridge, like so many of Portland’s Willamette River spans, & it’s a bascule mechanism; in other words, the two sections “lift & separate.” Because the bridge is relatively high (69 foot clearance), it only needs to open on the average of 30 times per month—& no, I wasn’t treated to one of those openings during my crossing!


 

All of the Portland bridges have a distinctive “look,” & the Morrison is no exception; it’s described as “minimalist,” but it also has the distinguishing control towers that have been described as looking like air traffic control towers. For more about the bridge, you can check out the article on Wikipedia or the one on the Multnomah County website.

In addition to beautiful views of downtown Portland & the Willamette, on a clear day you can see Mount Hood from the Morrison, as evidenced by the photo below! The Morrison, like the Steel, the Burnside & the Hawthorne, connects to the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade, & that’s how I wended my way back to Rose Quarter & the homeward train.

 
I’ve now crossed & written about five of the 10 Willamette Bridges. Two of the remaining five aren’t open to pedestrian traffic—the Marquam Bridge carries I-5, while the Fremont Bridge carries I-405. I’ll write them up, however. Still to come: the Sellwood (if I can get to it before it’s closed for repair!), the Ross Island, & the St. John’s bridge. Stay tuned!

The Excellent Outing Continued: Hawthorne Bridge

Welcome to Rose City Wednesday! When I left you last week I believe we were standing next to the statue of Mayor Vera Katz at the southern end of the Eastbank Esplanade, near the Hawthorne Bridge—& I forgot to say “to be continued.”

But perhaps you knew that. After all, if you’ve been following along, you know that I live nowhere near the southeastern corner of the Hawthorne Bridge, & you also know that I’ve set myself the task of walking all the “walkable” Portland bridges. Here it was, a glorious Sunday afternoon, with a big fat sun & the most pleasantly mild of breezes—so despite the fact that I’d already hiked from Northwest Portland & there was a bus stop nearby that could have taken me back to my neighborhood, I of course set off across the Hawthorne Bridge.

Perhaps because the day was so beautiful, I found the Hawthorne Bridge to make for a pleasant walk indeed. As you can see in the photo above, the sidewalk—which is very ample—is divided into both a walking & a bike lane; & on such a splendid spring day, this was a good thing indeed, as there was plenty of bike & pedestrian traffic on the bridge, especially heading west. Bikes in fact must cross to the west on the north side & to the east on the south side. While there are no similar restrictions for pedestrians, the flow certainly tends in that direction. In fact, per Wikipedia, the Hawthorne Bridge carries the most bike traffic of any Portland bridge, averaging 4,800 cyclists per day. In addition (& having mentioned the Hawthorne Bridge bus stop a while back—tho that stop is actually past the bridge on the east side), it also carries the most bus traffic: over 800 Trimet buses, averaging 17,400 riders daily.

The bridge rising

In addition, the Hawthorne Bridge, like most of the Portland bridges, is a drawbridge—specifically a vertical lift type drawbridge, in which the deck lifts straight up rather than lifting up in two separate sections like a bascule bridge—again, Wikipedia has a little gif illustrating the action of a vertical lift bridge. But the more-or-less exciting thing is that the bridge went into operation while I was crossing it. I only say “more-or-less” because the throng of people crossing the bridge prevented the best views (as well as the best camera angles!), but it was fun nonetheless. The opening was occasioned by the Portland Spirit excursion boat, which you can see emerging in the photo below.

The bridge was opened in 1910, & replaced an earlier bridge on the site that was destroyed in a fire. One of its most distinctive features—in addition to its rather dramatic truss profile—is the steel grating used for the car traffic lanes. 



Although the bridge carries many bus riders, it doesn’t carry light rail or streetcars, & no current transit plans are in place for it to do so—it had been considered as a route for the planned Max light rail Orange line from connecting Southwest & Southeast Portland, but a dedicated bridge is currently being built for that further south on the Willamette.

The Hawthorne Bridge as seen from Waterfront Park

It was a great outing! I ended up strolling thru Waterfront Park, then back east across the bridge & strolled until I was well along SE Hawthorne Boulevard before finally catching the buses that brought me home.

Four bridges down: four more to go!