St John's Bridge, Portland, Oregon

From Archiplanet

	St. John's Bridge
Designer	David Steinman , Engineer
Location	Portland, Oregon, USA
Date	1929 to June 13, 1931
Structure Type	bridge
Construction System	steel suspension, single span
Climate	moderate
Context	highway
Architectural Style	Art Nouveau
Builder	Oregon DOT
Street Address	US Highway 30 at Willamette River crossing
Notes

1 Images
2 Discussion
- 2.1 St. John's Bridge at Wikipedia
3 Maps
4 References
5 External Links

[edit] Images

[edit] Discussion

Bridge Details
Client	State of Oregon
Current Owner	Oregon Department of Transportation
Crosses	Willamette River
Carries	US Hwy 30
Traffic	automobiles, pedestrians, bicycle
Bridge Design	suspension bridge
Traffic	automobiles, pedestrians, bicycle
Height	480 feet
Length	2,067 feet (630 meters)
Width	four lanes of traffic and sidewalks
Clearance Beneath	205 feet (62 meters)
Number of Spans	1
Length of Longest Span	1,207 feet (369 meters)
Number of Decks	1

The St. John's Bridge is the northmost of the many bridges in Portland OR, which cross the Willamette River. The bridge connects the St. John's neighborhood in northern Portland with US Highway 30, near Linnton, Oregon.

Beneath the bridge on the eastern side is Cathedral Park whose name is inspired by the gothic arches of the concrete bridge supports.

[edit] St. John's Bridge at Wikipedia

St. Johns Bridge

The St. Johns Bridge is a steel suspension bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, USA, between the St. Johns neighborhood and the northwest industrial area around Linnton. It is the only suspension bridge in the Willamette Valley and one of three public highway suspension bridges in Oregon.

The bridge has two 408 ft (124 m) tall Gothic towers, a 1,207 ft (368 m) center span and a total length of 2,067 ft (630 m). The adjacent park and neighborhood of Cathedral Park, Portland, Oregon are named after the Gothic Cathedral-like appearance of the bridge towers. It is the tallest bridge in Portland, with 400 ft (122 m) tall towers and a 205 ft (62 m) navigational clearance.

By 2001, average traffic on the bridge was 23,800 vehicles/day.

History

At the time of the proposal to build the bridge, the area was served by a ferry which carried 1000 vehicles a day. The proposal for a bridge was initially met with skepticism in Multnomah County, since St. Johns and Linnton were over five miles (8 km) from the heart of the city, and local business owners had minimal political clout. But after a lobbying effort that included a vaudeville-style show performed at grange halls and schools throughout the county, voters approved a $4.25 million bond for the bridge in the November 1928 elections. Initially a cantilever bridge was proposed, but a suspension bridge was selected due to an estimated $640,000 savings in construction costs.

The construction of the bridge began a month before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and provided many county residents with employment during the Great Depression. Because of its proximity to the Swan Island Municipal Airport, some government officials wanted the bridge painted yellow with black stripes. County officials waited until St. Patrick's Day 1931 to announce that it would be painted green.

Dedication of the bridge was put off for one month in order to make it the centerpiece of the 23rd annual Rose Festival. It was dedicated on June 13, 1931, and during the ceremony, the bridge engineer, David B. Steinman said:

The bridge was built within 21 months and one million dollars under budget. At the time of its completion, the bridge had:

the highest clearance in the nation,
the longest prefabricated steel cable rope strands,
the tallest steel frame piers of reinforced concrete,
the first application of aviation clearance lights to the towers, and
longest suspension span west of Detroit, Michigan.

In the summer of 1949, 15-year-old high school student Thelma Taylor was abducted and held by her captor, Morris Leland, under the east side of the bridge (which was undeveloped at the time, now the location of Cathedral Park, Portland, Oregon), and was eventually murdered there. The crime shocked the city and her killer was apprehended and put to death.

It was not until the Marquam Bridge in 1966 that another non-movable bridge would be built in Portland.

By the 1970s, the bridge had been allowed to deteriorate, and cash-strapped Multnomah County asked the state to take over maintenance. Initially, the state declined, since it was also suffering from a lack of funds. But pressure from an association of county governments forced the state government to take it over on August 31, 1975. A county official estimated the move saved them $10 million during the first ten years of state maintenance.

In summer 1987, General Motors filmed the introductory commercial for the 1988 Buick Regal in Portland, Oregon and vicinity, including the St. John's bridge, the Astoria-Megler Bridge, and on the Columbia Gorge.

The east approaches and east span were repainted in 1994.

In 1999 the Oregon Department of Transportation announced a $27 million rehabilitation project that began in March 2003 and was completed in the fall of 2005. Included in the project was replacement of the deck, repainting of the towers, water-proofing the main cables, lighting upgrades, and improving access for bicycle and pedestrian traffic. By November 2004, renovation costs soared to $38 million, due mostly to the need to replace nearly half of the 210 vertical suspender cables. During the project, the bridge sidewalks were closed at all times. In addition, the entire bridge was closed at night and continuously for a month. The newly refurbished bridge was rededicated on September 17, 2006.