Get to know Portland's bridges: Hawthorne
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She's lookin' good for being 115. Photo: Courtesy of City of Portland
As the oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the U.S., Portland's Hawthorne Bridge is prone to frequent closures and repairs.
- Yes, but: Let's give credit where it's due.
The big picture: It's the oldest span across the Willamette and serves as the state's busiest bicycle and transit route, carrying roughly 800 TriMet buses and 8,000 cyclists daily.
Flashback: The first bridge at the site of the current Hawthorne Bridge was a wooden, spin span named the Madison Street Bridge.
- After a fire in 1902 burned its east end — and several surrounding buildings — Portlanders acknowledged the need to invest in steel bridges instead of wood.
- For the design, the city tapped Kansas City, Missouri-based engineer John A.L. Waddell, who at the time was a pioneer for vertical lift bridges. In 1907, voters approved a $450,000 bond to cover most of the $511,000 cost.
- Named after James C. Hawthorne, a well-known physician who founded Oregon's first institution for the insane on his namesake street, the bridge opened in December 1910 after just one year of construction.
How it works: The 1,383-foot bridge is made up of six spans and two towers, which can be raised 165 feet above its deck via a system of cables — supported by two 450-ton counterweights — to allow river traffic passage below.
- The operating system remains mostly original, making it an early surviving example of a style of bride no longer commonly in use.
The latest: The Hawthorne has received significant, costly upgrades in recent years. The original timber deck and sidewalk were removed, and its most recent repaving last year cost $9.5 million. Sidewalks were also widened in 1999 from 6 feet to 10 feet to the tune of a few million.
- The cadence of regular, routine maintenance has caused financial headaches for the county, which in 2005 estimated replacing the bridge could cost $190 million.
- If lessons are to be taken from the Burnside Bridge replacement project, that price tag would be bound to balloon.