This
bridge spans the narrowest portion of the Willamette River in
the Portland area. It permits Burnside Street to stretch virtually
from the eastern edge to the western edge of the city and serve
as the city's north/south divider. The bridge's style and long
approaches emphasize this east/west extension. Its most notable,
appealing architectural features are the ornate spindle-type balustrade
railings (wrought iron on the bascule sections) and two turreted
operator houses which are cantilevered from the main piers.
Joseph
B. Strauss (who later designed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge)
designed its bascule system: two 126-feet long leaves in the center
of the bridge. The solid concrete decks of the lift span weigh
nearly 5,000 tons and require 1,700-ton counterweights in each
pier to tip them up and return them safely in place. Pile "clusters"
made of 40-foot-tall Douglas fir tree trunks support the river
piers.
Designers
were Robert Kremers and Ira G. Hedrick, who had partnered with
John Waddell, the designer of the Hawthorne, Steel and Interstate
bridges. To resolve some local turmoil affecting the bridge, Gustav
Lindenthal, of New York, was brought in as consulting engineer
and then hired to complete the engineering and to supervise the
bridge’s entire construction. It was completed in 1926 for
$2,964,647 and replaced a wrought iron truss swing-span structure
at the same site.
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