Steel Bridge over the Willamette River, altered with Picnik

Westbound traffic lane and a vehicle, plus MAX tracks and a westbound MAX train emerging from the Steel Bridge; eastbound MAX train, and the Steel Bridge. Thanks to Flickr contact drburtoni for suggesting that I take the altered image you see below and make it black and white.


I took the original photo on October 8, 2011. This one is altered with the Picnik special effect HDR-ish.

From the Internet:

The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries road traffic (on the Pacific Highway West No. 1W, former Oregon Route 99W) and light rail (MAX), making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world. It is the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world and the second oldest vertical-lift bridge in North America, after the nearby Hawthorne Bridge. The bridge links the Rose Quarter and Lloyd District in the east to Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in the west.

The bridge was completed in 1912 and replaced the Steel Bridge that was built in 1888 as a double-deck swing-span bridge. The 1888 structure was the first railroad bridge across the Willamette River in Portland. Its name originated because steel, instead of wrought iron, was used in its construction, very unusual for the time. When the current Steel Bridge opened, it was simply given its predecessor's name.

The structure was built by Union Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company at a cost of $1.7 million. It opened in July 1912 to rail traffic and on August 9, 1912 to automobiles. In 1950, the Steel Bridge became an important part of a new U.S. 99W highway between Harbor Drive and Interstate Avenue. Harbor Drive was removed in 1974 and replaced with Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Between 1984 and 1986 the bridge underwent a $10 million rehabilitation, including construction of the MAX light rail line.
In 2001, a 220-foot (67 m) long and 8-foot (2.4 m) wide cantilevered walkway was installed on the southern side of the bridge's lower deck as part of the Eastbank Esplanade construction, raising to three the number of publicly accessible walkways across the bridge, including the two narrow sidewalks on the upper deck. The bridge is owned by Union Pacific with the upper deck leased to Oregon Department of Transportation, and subleased to TriMet, while the City of Portland is responsible for the approaches.
The upper deck was closed again for summer 2008 for maintenance and to allow a junction to be built at the west end for the MAX Green Line. The lower deck of the bridge was threatened by major floods in 1948, 1964, and 1996.

The lift span of the bridge is 211-foot (64 m) long. At low river levels the lower deck is 26 feet (7.9 m) above the water, and 163 feet (50 m) of vertical clearance is provided when both are raised. Because of the independent lifts, the lower deck can be raised to 72 feet (22 m), telescoping into the upper deck but not disturbing it. Each deck has it own counterweights, two for the upper and eight for the lower, totaling 9,000,000 lb (4,100 metric tons).

The machinery house is above the upper-deck lift span with an operator's room suspended below the house so that the operator can view river traffic as well as the upper deck. The average daily traffic in 2000 was 23,100 vehicles (including many TriMet bus lines), 200 MAX trains, 40 freight and Amtrak trains, and 500 bicycles. The construction of the lower-deck walkway connected to the Eastbank Esplanade resulted in a sharp increase in bicycle traffic, with over 2,100 daily bicycle crossings in 2005.

Great technical diagrams at this link, as well as photos.

Waiting, with Resignation. #3

I took three photos--this is the last of the three.


Here's the first photo I took when the dog and I both had noticed each other. What a beautiful glossy coat!


In the second photo, the dog's turning his head to his right, away from me. Seems to be asking, "Are you sure you have to take my picture? I shall ignore you in hopes of discouraging your efforts."


With resignation, "Oh, well. It didn't work." Here's the last of the three again, the original of the top photo in this post. You can see how I altered it using Picnik's contrast, sharpness, and HDR-ish.

I took these photos on October 30, 2010. I didn't have a clue where the two of us were, so I searched through my Flickr Photostream and am convinced that I took this photo on NE Broadway, between NE 15th where I got off the bus and NE 16th where I went into a building.

On the street, animate. Seen from the bus on East Burnside. October 8, 2011. Portland's just plain interesting.

Almost anachronisms abound. Left to right.

(1) The need for a box fan in Portland in October--see it in the doorway. It's usually in the low 60s, or cooler even.
(2) People sitting out from under cover--the two men closest to the curb. In October in Portland, it's more than likely to be raining.
(3) People smoking near the entrance of the Grendel's Coffee House. The Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act prohibits smoking in most public places and places of employment. Additionally, smoking is not permitted within ten feet of any entrance, exit, window, or air-intake vent.
(4) The USPS corner mailbox beside the brick column. According to a Sept. 8, 2011, article at Seattle PI dot com, in 1985 there were 400,000 of them out and about, now 160,000 remain. Actually the article is pretty informative.

Image cropped and altered with Picnik Effect HDR-ish.

Big Pink, another modern piece of architecture which totally fascinates me.

I cannot remember the term used to describe what's going on with the building in the left corner, the Embassy Suites which started out as the Multnomah Hotel. I believe the same thing impacts the building (a parking garage maybe) which stands between the hotel and the Big Pink. You see, my simple goal as I stood facing west on SW 3rd Avenue on Saturday, February 18, 2012, was to enjoy the glory of that huge blue sky, a sight almost unseen during a Portland winter. Naturally I noticed the Big Pink. Had to take photos, just had to take photos, hoping to catch the sky and the building at their best.

Once I had downloaded the photos to iPhoto, I noticed a bit of serendipity--at first glance the alignment of some floors of the Big Pink seem to meet the building to its left in the photo, the one which I think is a parking garage. Makes it look like the two buildings are connected, doesn't it? Actually they rise on opposite sides of SW 5th Avenue.

Image altered at Picnik, Basic Effects, Sharpen and Color.

Altered with Picnik, Various Edits and Special Effects, No. 3

A. E. Doyle is my favorite Portland architect. This building, which also appeared in yesterday's post, is one of his which I adore. One of these days I will go inside and ask if I may take photos. Until then, more about the exterior.



Info found at the Architecture Foundation of Oregon Web site:

The US Bank Main Branch ... Architect: A.E. Doyle ... Built in 1917 (Please notice the building peeking through the space between the columns and the building. More about it soon.)

Built in 1917 and added to in 1925, the US Bank building was built in two stages that allowed it to occupy half of the National Bank Block in Portland. The location of the first project was at the corner of Southwest Sixth and Stark, later extended west to border Broadway. One of the west coast’s leading architects, A.E. Doyle designed the bank in the Classical temple style after the famous Knickerbocker Trust Bank in New York designed by McKim, Mead and White. This style was considered at the time by US Bank president J.C. Ainsworth to ‘embody the most modern type of bank architecture’.

When visiting this magnificent building, the first architectural elements you are likely to notice are the freestanding monolithic columns designed in the Corinthian order. The Corinthian order was chosen for the entire exterior of the building, in part to set a contrast between this building and the Doric order of the rival First National Bank.

Looking up between two of the columns.

This photo contrasts the size of the pedestrian and the dog with the size of the columns. Monumental difference. The intersection: SW Stark is the one way street, eastbound, crossing SW 6th Avenue, looking north on SW 6th Avenue.

Large bronze doors to the lobby greet visitors at the entry. Arvard Fairbanks, a former sculptor and professor of the University of Oregon designed these doors, which were inspired by the fifteenth century “Gates of Paradise” located in the Baptistery in Florence, Italy.


The Bank’s interiors are just as ornate and detailed as the exterior, having been built in a period before the modern movement removed ornamental architecture, and in a time when no dollar was spared to create a masterpiece. Three different colors of marble are present in the main lobby; each traveling from far reaches around the world. The white marble that can be seen in the floor and columns came from Italy; the red marble in the floor traveled from Hungary; and finally, the black marble at the counters found its way here from quarries in Belgium. The ceiling displays excellent artistry in ceramic bas-relief that was made in casts that were hand carved. Architect A.E. Doyle carefully oversaw the hand painting of the bas-relief, which has never needed to be repainted.

Altered with Picnik, Vibrance Special Effect, No. 2

Altered by cropping, tinkering with the exposure, and using the Vibrance Special Effect to make the colors pop.

What do you think is going on here? Did the man on the bicycle squeak in pain after taking the curb, causing the man waiting to cross SW 6th take a close look?

Altered with Picnik, Focal B&W, No. 1

Focal B&W Special Effect. I took this photo on March 12, 2009 with my backup camera, a Coolpix L12.

At the time renovation of the downtown Portland Transit Mall, which goes south on SW 5th and north on SW 6th, nears completion. On this particular day, the lane lines must have been painted; crews had placed bollards alongside the lines to keep vehicles off the paint prior to its drying.

Speaking of lanes, let me explain them to you. Automobiles are allowed in the leftmost lane only and may turn left only (except for one intersection whose location I do not recall). You can tell from the recessed metal tracks that the MAX has priority in either the center lane or the right lane, depending whether it is making time or boarding and/or de-boarding passengers. Buses are the only wheeled vehicles allowed in the right lane, but of course they may not go there if a MAX train is there. All of the bus stops are on the sidewalk beside the right lane. This is SW 6th, looking north in the middle of the block south of SW Madison. I am at this intersection most days after work now that the Mall has reopened.