Sunday Bridges, the St. Johns Bridge over the Willamette River

This is a portion of the St. Johns Bridge, seen from the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge, a truss bridge with a vertical left, as the SP 4449 steamed across the Willamette River on July 3, on its way to Wishram, Washington. I took the photo from my seat in the dome car, looking to the north. On the left you see just a bit of the upper structure of the railroad bridge and some of the rivets.

The St. Johns Bridge is a steel suspension bridge over the Willamette River, connecting the St. Johns neighborhood and the Northwest Industrial area around Linnton, another Portland neighborhood; Linnton extends into unincorporated Multnomah County, outside the city limits of Portland. It is the only suspension bridge in the Willamette Valley and one of three public highway suspension bridges in Oregon. There are two gothic towers, not just one as you see in the photo, both of which are 408 feet tall. It has a 1,207 foot center span and a total length of 2,067 feet. The St. Johns Bridge is the tallest one in Portland, with a navigational clearance of 205 feet.

Seen from the train pulled by the steam engine SP 4449

D50 photos:


That big, beautiful steam engine SP 4449, seen from my dome car seat on July 3 as it pulls us back westward. Scroll down to read all about our "making a Y."


A quick glimpse between two hurtling cars on the adjacent track, out in the Columbia River Gorge on July 3. I took these photos from the open baggage car doorway.


The foreground is in Washington. The tree-covered mountains are in Oregon.


Another beautiful spot.


Smoke from the engine waited beneath the overpass, just for me to catch it in this photograph.



Mt. Hood, still lots of snow there. I took these photos from inside the dome car.


I think the train was pretty close to Wishram, Washington, when I took this one. Interesting shapes, so sharp looking.


This is after lunch, as the train backed westward until it was able to back south onto a bridge, the pull forward and go forward, westward towards Vancouver, Washington, and then on to Union Station at Portland.


Doggone taggers!


What sort of rock is this? How did those smooth, curved indentations get there? All of the sharp pieces? Mysterious.


There's the southernmost section of the bridge with a barge passing underneath.


Here you see the tracks that go east and west. We're back south, out over the Columbia River. There is the distance is the part of the bridge that we will use to make our way back westward. My friend Milton, who is now retired from the CN Railroad, told me after I described our maneuver, "You made a Y, Lynette."


See the orange and red rail car with the doors? There are slats across the openings--that's the baggage car where I stood part of the ride out to Wishram. To rest of the orange and red is the SP 4449 itself, working at a gentle pace to back us onto the bridge. It's actually facing east and moving west. I am so glad that we were on the train for this part of the excursion. Saturday's outing had the passengers waiting at the Wishram station for this to take place.


Our path home begins here.


The Columbia River, seen as we backed on the bridge.


One of the things folks like to do out in the Columbia River Gorge.


There you see the track that the train used to back onto the bridge.


Here's the SP 4449 pulling us towards Portland. I think the two orange and red cars behind the engine are the tenders. I'm not sure why there's that smoky look in front of the engine. It was very dry and windy out there--perhaps it is dust.


How many years ago did that landslide happen? Interstate 84 is at the bottom alongside the river.


This bridge is at The Dalles, Oregon.


How did this shape happen, this roof-like shape? Surely it's not man-made. Does anyone know anything about it? Please comment if you do, or if you've seen something like it elsewhere. Thanks!


The Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks, Oregon. Last August I actually drove a Zipcar over it!

Ready for fun last Sunday! The ride on the train pulled by the steam engine!

Here I stand, Deuter backpack over my arm, in front of the SP 4449, one gigantic steam engine. A few minutes later I boarded dome car G and found my seat for the ride from Portland's Union Station to Wishram, Washington, out east in the Columbia River Gorge. Despite having an allergy-riddled Saturday, I managed to thoroughly enjoy the entire day-long event. The reason I'm actually in a photo on my blog is that a nice stranger offered to take a photo for me! I'm frantically pulling at my sweater, trying to look neat, and he's clicking away. He did a great job!

Here's some great information from the Friends of SP 4449's Web site:
SP 4449 was built in 1941 as a GS-4 "Northern" type locomotive. A 4-8-4 wheel arrangement, she is 110' long, 10' wide and 16' tall. The locomotive and tender weighs 433 tons, and it operates with a boiler pressure of 300 psi. Her eight 80" diameter drivers and unique booster truck can apply 5,500 horsepower to the rails and exceed 100 mph. The only remaining operable "streamlined" steam locomotive of the Art Deco era, this grand Lady of the High Iron pulled Southern Pacific "Daylight" coaches from Los Angeles to San Francisco over the scenic Coast Route and then on to Portland until 1955. Retired to static display at Oaks Park in 1958, most thought SP 4449 would never run again.

In 1974, she was selected to pull the American Freedom Train throughout the United States, and was subsequently rebuilt. SP 4449 ran for three years to the delight of over 30 million people. She is arguably one of the most beautiful locomotives ever built -- and kept that way by the all-volunteer Friends of SP 4449!

Here are a few more photos of the SP 4449 and some of the cars that I took before we pulled out of Union Station.










I walked through this car on the way to the baggage car as the train headed east. I wanted to take photos from the open doors and/or look at and/or buy souvenirs. I had a great time in that baggage car, let me tell you! I found online that the Goombay Sunrise is a diner/sleeper car.




The name of the baggage car and the Daylight logo. I read online that the red and orange paint job is on the Southern Pacific 4449 so that it matched the passenger train also known as the Daylight which it pulled for most of its career.

I wish you could have heard the engine like I could when I stood at the open door in the baggage car! What a sound it made as it steamed along at a fast clip. And then there's the whistle, one of the greatest sounds around, ever!