Hawthorne Bridge

Sometimes casual internet research turns into a banquet of riches. I'm just going to share the bounty a bit.

Portland's bridges are kind of like a gaggle of siblings in a family you love for taking you in. Each one has its own personality and appeal. The Hawthorne bridge holds the place of the older sister who has a fondness for fine art and music but not a lot of accumulated wealth to show for it. She's aged gracefully, and though her tastes are slightly archaic and out of touch with today's youth, she still resides as the cool, beautiful, and funky aunt whom all the nieces and nephews love. I even have a fondness for the wheelhouse (is that what it should be called?) shown here.

100 years old this year, the Hawthorne Bridge is the "oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the United States." This Multnomah County site also notes that most of the lift system is still original, other than the electrical and control systems, which I'd just as soon have updated every century or so, thank you very much. It replaced two earlier Madison Street bridges.

Here is a picture of some of the men responsible for this beauty.

This link provides a view of the old trolley bus which used to cross the bridge before the Max took over that kind of transportation. It can be seen about midway down the page.

This page provides, amongst other great old views of the waterfront, two WWII-era photos of the bridge, one of which shows a huge ship (it looks too big to be a barge-- one of the Navy's victory ships constructed around here?) passing through.

And finally, although I'm sad to say that I didn't get to go to the recent centennial celebration which had the middle lanes of the bridge covered in grass for a benefit picnic, I did find this contemporary representation of Hawthorne appreciation. See? Even the noisy, restless kids at the table find a lot to love.

So... pass the wine?