Get to know Portland's bridges: Marquam

Flashback: Built in 1966, the vehicle-only Marquam Bridge's sole purpose was to complete the entire 310-mile Interstate 5 corridor across Oregon and connect other major highways, I-84 and I-405, to I-5.

• The bridge was designed by Oregon Department of Transportation engineers. They settled on a 5,280-foot-long double-deck steel-truss cantilever design to allow for practical interchanges.
• While other bridges crossing the Willamette have movable spans, the Marquam is fixed. There's roughly 130 feet of clearance below deck to allow river traffic to pass seamlessly.

Follow the money: Construction of the bridge cost roughly $11 million, which at the time made it the costliest in Portland history.

The intrigue: Depending on who you ask, the bridge was named after either judge and lawmaker Philip Marquam or the Marquam Gulch, a nearby spring.

What they're saying: Everyone seemed to hate the bridge's blasé appearance.

• The Portland Art Commission called it "so gross, so lacking in grace, so utterly inconsistent with any concept of aesthetics."
• Meanwhile, former Mayor Vera Katz said it had "all the subtle charm of the Daytona 500 smack dab in the middle of our city."

The haters got their way in the design of Portland's next bridge a few years later, which is arguably the city's crown jewel.