Oops! I almost forgot the Burnside Bridge!

When I said come back today for the Steel Bridge, I got ahead of myself going north. I jumped right over the Burnside Bridge. I took this photo from the west side of the Willamette River, looking south. I took these photos on Saturday, Dec. 8, while out and about.




Wikipedia: The Burnside Bridge is a bascule bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. The bridge opened on May 28, 1926 at a final cost of $4.5 million (including approaches). It is the only Willamette River bridge in Portland that was designed with input from an architect. This led to the Italian Renaissance towers and decorative metal railing. ... Electric streetcar tracks were removed in the 1940s. In 1995 one of the six lanes was removed to accommodate new bicycle lanes. From March until November of 2002 the bridge went through a $2.1 million seismic retrofit, making it the first bridge operated by Multnomah County to receive earthquake protection. The bridge is currently under construction in order to replace the deck. The electric streetcar tracks, removed in the 1940s, are now visible again. This project is budgeted at $9 million and scheduled to be complete in late 2007.

The Burnside Bridge renovation was the subject of my first CDPB post on Sept. 1, 2007.



While lowered this span is normally 64 ft (20 m) above the river. The deck is made of concrete, which factors in it being one of the heaviest bascule bridges in the United States. The counterweights, housed inside the two piers, weigh 1,700 tons. The lifting is normally controlled by the Hawthorne Bridge operator, but an operator mans the west tower during high river levels.


Here's another tour boat, the Portland Spirit, cruising beneath the Burnside Bridge. Read all about it here.


I've been seeing seagulls in Portland since October, 2006. Maybe it was because when we moved to the Northwest Hills, I had to cross the river twice a day to get to work.