Sunday Bridges: Fremont Bridge over the Willamette River

Click here to see more Sunday Bridges for November 6, 2011.


The Fremont Bridge as seen from Interstate Avenue, northward bound on the Yellow Line MAX train. I'm looking toward the Northwest Hills. I have cropped and altered it with Picnik's HDR-ish special effect.

Found on the Internet:

The Fremont Bridge is a steel tied arch bridge over the Willamette River located in Portland, Oregon. It carries Interstate 405 and US 30 traffic between downtown and North Portland where it intersects with I-5. 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 bridge was named for John Charles Frémont, though a nearby street was previously named Fremont Street in honor of the same individual.

The bridge has two decks carrying vehicular traffic, each with four lanes. The upper deck is signed westbound on US 30 and southbound on I-405. The lower deck is signed eastbound on US 30 and northbound on I-405. The upper deck is closed to vehicular traffic annually for the Providence Bridge Pedal, a fundraiser which, in 2011, benefited the Providence (Hospital) Heart and Vascular Institute and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. (One of these days I'm going to get brave enough to walk the bridges included in this event.)

The Fremont Bridge is 2,154 feet long, with its longest span at 1,255 feet. The clearance below the bridge is 175 feet, while the vertical clearance is 18.3 feet--I assume that means clearance between the two decks. It crosses the Willamette River and surface streets in Portland.

Due to the public's dissatisfaction with the appearance of the Marquam Bridge, the Portland Art Commission was invited to participate in the design process of the Fremont. The improvement in visual quality resulted in a bridge that was nearly six times as expensive as the purposely-economical Marquam Bridge. Designers modeled the bridge after the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In October of 1971, while still under construction, a crack was found on the west span girder that required a $5.5 million redesign and repair. The main span of the bridge was built in California then assembled at Swan Island, 1.7 miles (2.7 km) downstream. After completion it was floated into place on a barge.

On March 16, 1973 the 6,000 ton steel arch span was lifted 170 ft (52 m) using 32 hydraulic jacks. At the time, it was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest lift ever completed. The bridge was opened on November 15, 1973 at a final cost of $82 million, most of which was financed by the Federal Highway Administration.

In 1976, an American flag and an Oregon flag were added atop the structure as part of the bicentennial celebration for the United States.[4] The 15 feet (4.6 m) by 25 feet (7.6 m) flags are attached to 50-foot (15 m) tall flagpoles at the crest of the arches.

The Fremont Bridge was also the 26th Peregrine falcon nest site designated in Oregon after the raptor was placed on the U.S. Threatened and Endangered Species list in 1970.

Romance, seen from our living room windows, an unusual sight on NW 22nd

Yep, it's a TriMet bus, the 15 to be exact, as you can tell from the sign atop its windshield--Belmont/23rd means it's the bus that goes from NW 23rd across the river to SE Belmont.

Back story. We heard a news story on KGW Channel 8, explaining that from at least 7 p.m. on until we knew not when NW 23rd would be closed between Hoyt and Irving for a street event centered around Escape from New York Pizza.

Hence we soon began to hear the distinctive, memory-inducing squwish, whoosh, sound signaling the release of brakes and the diesel-infused acceleration of a 12-ton bus heading north, first right outside the living room windows above NW 22nd. Then we heard the deceleration of the southbound bus, the squeak of the engaging brakes, followed by the beep-beep-beep of the kneeling bus. Kneeling? At the corner of NW 22nd and NW Everett? I quickly looked down from our 4th floor window and saw an older woman walking west, away from the stopped bus. Yep, the driver had pushed the button that makes the door-side of the bus lower itself a few inches which makes for an easier exit--or entrance--for older persons, disabled persons. Oh, and there's a ramp that folds out and sits itself onto the sidewalk for wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, and those wire baskets you can fill up with groceries, etc.

So, why in the world you're wondering would I get a photo of one of the buses that went south over the next few hours? Why would I be so excited about having buses outside our windows? Believe me, Mama was wondering about it, especially as we kept hearing the squeak, the squwish, the whoosh, and the acceleration and deceleration. She said more than once, "I'm glad we don't have this outside every day."

Here's what excited me, the fact that changing from one street to another parallel one causes not a single ripple in the functioning of TriMet. I didn't go out on NW 23rd to look, but I can just about guarantee that TriMet had signs and/or employees at the regular bus stops on NW 23rd, telling folks to go east one block to board their bus.

It's so Portland to be able to adapt to changing circumstances like this, like when the bridges have to lift for river traffic, like the upcoming Providence Bridge Pedal when folks can choose to ride their bikes on 11 bridges that cross the Willamette in Portland because lanes will be closed to vehicle traffic--you could ride across fewer bridges or walk across two of them, I could go on and on.

These changes are not your run-of-the-mill construction-induced changes. Don't get me wrong, those are here just like everywhere else. But to me these so-Portland-changes brim with romance and make me fall even more for this city I've now called home for three years.