There are many articles – blog posts or otherwise – and even books about the bridges of Portland, Oregon.  Of the twelve bridges along the Willamette River – four more on the Columbia – little space usually covers the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 or the rail portion of the Steel Bridge.  If you exclude the new Tilikum Crossing Bridge, which carries light rail tracks and buses, the other rail bridges lack the grace of the St Johns or Fremont Bridges and the traffic of all of the other bridges – maybe the Steel excluded.

A recent post about the rail ferry at Kalama, Washington, some forty-five minutes north of the city, got me thinking about railroads and history.  While at first glance, both are reasonably complicated, in the case of the main rail bridges in Portland, like the ferry at Kalama, it all comes down to James J. Hill.

THE MAN

James J. Hill is another of those rags to riches stories coming out of the 19^th century.   Born near Guelph, Ontario in 1838, Hill’s father ran a tavern providing James with the opportunity to attend Rockwood Academy where he gained the structure of an education he would subsequently build from especially strong in mathematics.  His father died when he was 14 ending his formal education.  Forced to leave school to help provide for the family, Hill served as a clerk in small stores for four years until a younger brother took his place as the head of the family.

Leaving home, Hill worked his way down the east coast of America eventually ending up in St. Paul, Minnesota Territory where he joined a steamship company as a clerk.  He went into business with a partner, Chauncey Griggs in 1869.  They served to transship coal, lime, cement and salt on the Mississippi and Red rivers.  Profits earned allowed Hill to become a part-owner in the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad in 1878. 

A RAILROAD MAN

The rail company already emerged from bankruptcy once – in 1862.  As the Minnesota & Pacific, the original company had gained a land grant from the territorial legislature for 2,460,000 acres.  Reorganized, the company had problems attracting finance to allow it to build.  About 210 miles of track laid by 1865 was all the company had to its credit before being bought up by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1870.

The Northern Pacific wedding lasting only until NP declared bankruptcy in the Panic of 1873.  The main bondholder for the St. Paul & Pacific was a group of Dutch bondholders whom Hill – with investors at his back – purchased the line for $5.5 million.  The chief factor in being able to attract investors was the large land grant potential.  On the strength of the lands, new bonds allowed new construction on the line, redeemed by new land being transferred to the rail line (Land from the grant transferred according to the miles constructed).

Taking the St. Paul & Pacific out of bankruptcy the following year, the line renamed itself the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway.  The company pushed out its lines, especially in the Red River valley, increasing profits under Hill’s astute guidance. 

WESTEARD BOUND

Looking to the Pacific, Hill renamed the line the Great Northern Railway in 1889.  The line used the low 5,214-foot Marias Pass to get through the northern Rocky Mountains and reach Seattle over Stevens Pass in January 1893 becoming the only non-federal land grant railway to achieve a transcontinental line.  More importantly, the Great Northern was the only transcontinental line to remain solvent during the financial depression of 1893.

Hill used a combination of tactics to strengthen his hand.  Great Northern acquired several local railroads to feed into the system.  The ticket price and freight charges seriously undercut the charges offered by competitor Northern Pacific.  Hill also encouraged settlement along his lines gaining a trail of farms sprouting up along the way.  Farms which looked to the railroad for transport of goods in and out.  He helped farmers learn new ways in which to grow their crops with demonstration trains full of agricultural experts.

TYING UP THE NORTH

With the financial help of J. P. Morgan, Hill amassed enough stock from the bankrupt Northern Pacific line to gain control.  In 1901, he bought up controlling stock in the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, a line which gave Hill access to Chicago.  Competitor, Union Pacific, owned almost as much stock following a stock raid.  In self-interest, the two competitors agreed to settle their differences in the formation of the Northern Securities Company to bring under control all of Hill’s major rail properties. 

The federal government brought suit on the basis of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1902 with the Supreme Court deciding in the government’s favor two years later.  Northern Pacific, Great Northern and the Burlington lines remained separate – still with control by Hill – until 1870 when the three lines joined with the Spokane, Portland & Seattle line to form the Burlington Northern – today’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

A NEW RAIL LINE

In 1905, Hill started the Portland & Seattle Railway to connect the NP and GN to Portland at Spokane.  The two railways had connected earlier through Union Pacific subsidiary Oregon & Washington Railway & Navigation Company tracks along the south bank of the Columbia River.   Hill’s men went out quietly to acquire right-of-ways on the north bank of the Columbia with worsening relations between Hill’s consortium in the north and Harriman’s Union Pacific on the south bank through control of the O&WR&N. 

Northern Pacific acquired the Columbia Railway & Navigation Company which already had done a survey for a possible railway on the north bank of the river.  Great Northern opted into the project and it was decided a new railway subsidiary – P&S – would construct, build and own the new railway between Vancouver and Pasco.  By using a subsidiary to do the heavy lifting, both the NP and the GN protected their stockholders from possible difficulties.

The Portland & Seattle name was chosen to help throw Harriman into believing the impetus was to build a new rail line between Portland and Seattle instead of Spokane and Portland.  In fact, SP&S never built a line into Seattle.  The line seen by many as a bridge between the NP and GN until such time they were allowed to merge.  The “bridge” lasted seventy years.

NORTHERN PACIFIC’S PREVIOUS WORKS

The NP line started building its transcontinental line from the east – Duluth – and the west, Kalama – at the same time, 1872.  It was not until 1883, the NP finished a train line on the Oregon side of the river opposite Kalama.  Using the railcar ferry Tacoma, the NP could then run trains between Seattle and Portland.  Beforehand, passengers had to transfer to steamboats to get upriver to Portland from Kalama.  It was not until 1896, the rail line on the Oregon side was finally completed past Goble to Astoria (and eventually Seaside) by the Astoria & Columbia Railroad.  This line was purchased by Hill in 1909, running it through the SP&S.

In 1890, the Portland & Puget Sound Railroad company looked into pushing through a rail line from Portland to Seattle through Vancouver, Washington.  That attempt was not forthcoming, and P&PS found itself a subsidiary of Harriman’s UP empire by 1900.  The rights-of-way were purchased by the NP and a new line without the ferry was established.  The final part of the new line was the development of three rail bridges – two over sections of the Columbia and one over the Willamette – along with a deep rail cut of over a mile through north Portland.

THE BRIDGES

WILLAMETTE RIVER

Railroad bridges do not tend to be artistic.  They are usually utilitarian in design and function.  Portland rail bridges over the Columbia and the Willamette built by the NP-GN consortium through their SP&S subsidiary are no exception.  The bridges are all double tracked with both the main Columbia River bridges at Vancouver and the bridge over the Willamette were built with swing spans over the main channels of the rivers. 

A swing span basically cut the width of the channel in half.  This was not a big hindrance on the Columbia, but it was for ship traffic on the Willamette.  More than once, as ship length increased during the 20^th century, ships bumped into the central stanchion.  Finally, one episode in 1978, did enough damage that in order to minimize disruption to rail and river traffic, the swing span – originally the longest in the world when constructed – was eliminated in 1989 with a vertical lift-span put in its place – fourth highest in the world.

BNSF 5.1

Construction on the Willamette bridge – today officially known as Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge (BNSF) 5.1 (5.1 miles north from the main rail station in Portland) – took two years to complete 1906-1908.  All three Portland rail bridges built for the SP&S were designed by Ralph Modeski, a Polish American civil engineer, one of the most renowned bridge designers in American history. 

Besides these three bridges, he was chief engineer for the Celilo Bridge (1910) crossing the Columbia near Wishram, Washington, the Crooked River Bridge (1911) – both the Celilo and Crooked River built as part of the Oregon Trunk Hill subsidiary feeder rail line leading from the Columbia south along the Deschutes River to Bend in central Oregon – and the Broadway Bridge in Portland (1913).

The Willamette Bridge today shows two different colors with the older sections still dating to 1908 painted sliver.  The new vertical-lift span is weathering steel designed to rust naturally into a reddish brown.  The bridge sees 30-35 trains each day.

Wikipedia – Steve Morgan

COLUMBIA AND SLOUGH BRIDGES

A previous attempt at bridging the Columbia at Vancouver left a large stone pier in place for a swing-span.  Modjeski calculated in using the pier, he could save $80,000 in construction costs.  The direction the rails took over the river determined the line taken to the Willamette River.  A straight line through the peninsula of St Johns.

The Columbia Slough Bridge – BNSF Railway Bridge 8.8 – crosses a branch of the Columbia River on its south side.  The bridge – 8.8 miles from Union Station in Portland – is a swing span opening far less often than its bigger brother with an average of only 12 times a month.  The Columbia River Bridge opens 12 times a day in comparison. 

The two bridges are linked by a trestle-fill bank carrying the double tracks over Hayden Island.  The Slough Bridge covers 1,524 feet with a 334-foot swing span on the south end. As with the other bridges, the Slough Bridge dates to 1908.

BNSF Railway Bridge 9.6 crosses the main channel of the Columbia River in 2,807 feet – longest span, the swing span of some 467 feet.  The pier on which the swing span sits dates to the older 1890 project becoming incorporated into the newer design. The bridge stands as the longest, by far, of the Portland rail bridges.

THE CUT

When it came time to connect the new SP&S line to downtown Portland, there were a couple of lines of thought.  Between the Willamette and the Columbia juts a peninsular shaped plain sitting almost 100 feet above the flood plains of the two rivers.  The Corps of Engineers envisioned a rail line running atop the plain.  As the railroad ventured across the Willamette, the Corps saw a high bridge which required nothing in the way of a lift for ship traffic.  However, the railroad saw things differently.  A high bridge would cost too much.  They looked for the opportunity to cut through the peninsula, creating a level crossing from bridge to cut to next bridges over the Columbia River.  The line created by the Columbia crossing determined the direction of the cut and the location of the Willamette bridge, trying to minimize curves and grade encountered by the trains.

The cut created dug up to 80 feet down from the top of the plains.  It traveled through the east edge of the little town of St. Johns, only recently incorporated in 1902.  Residents objected to the cut as it cut the town off from districts of Portland to the east.  The railroad agreed to build four steel bridges over the cut – all still in place – as well as a street paralleling the east edge of the cut.  The east side street, Carey Street – named after the treasurer of the SP&S – only runs a couple blocks on the south end of the cut.  A multiuse trail runs along the course of where the street was supposed to run.  Multi-use includes mostly homeless camps at present.

fill and up tunnel

Material dug out from the cut was used as fill to the north as the rail line approached the Columbia bridges.  Originally, trestles were used to cross the mile-long approach to keep the journey level between Willamette and Columbia bridges.  Eventually, the trestles were included in fill, similar to Hayden Island which linked the Slough and River bridges together.  Closer to the north end of the cut, another small bridge spanned the ‘real’ Columbia Slough – no swing-span needed there.

The Union Pacific main yard sits across the river on the east bank. Formerly much larger with a roundhouse, the rails went up the east bank of the Willamette under the bluffs. About a half mile to the east of the BNSF rail bridge, the UP decided to tunnel under the bluffs to the north in order to easier connect with the SP&S rails heading north to Seattle. The two systems come together halfway between the BNSF rail cut and the Columbia Slough Bridge.

ITERATIONS OF THE STEEL BRIDGE

Before the appearance of the SP&S, the only major rail lines coming into Portland were the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation – OWR&N – and the Northern Pacific line running north along the left  bank of the Columbia to the rail ferry crossing at Goble just north of St Helens.  The OWR&N was controlled by the Union Pacific of Edward H. Harriman. 

Portland passenger depots

The main rail passenger terminal in Portland was, and still is, Union Station.  Union Station resulted from plans by Henry Villard, who in 1883 presided over the NP as it reached into Portland.  He envisioned both a major passenger terminal along with a major hotel – the Portland Hotel. 

The terminal then known as Grand Central Station went through several different plans going from what would have been the world’s largest station to a smaller size.  Financial problems stymied Villard and the NP in 1883 and planning not resumed until 1890.  Northern Pacific Terminal Company – originally the construction arm of the NP – became charged with building the terminal, finally opening in 1896.

By 1907-1908 when the SP&S began life, The NP Terminal Company was only partially owned by the NP.  Harriman’s OWR&N also had a major say in the usage of the new Portland depot.  The Portland station was a major endpoint for OWR&N passenger trains, as well as NP and Great Northern trains utilizing OWR&N tracks along the south bank of the Columbia from the east.  The OWR&N made agreement with the new rail line and the passenger depot impossible.  Luckily for the SP&S, the NP earlier purchased land to the west of the main passenger depot for expanded rail yards.  The North Bank Depot at 10^th and Hoyt – the old depot buildings reused as condominiums in the heart of the Pearl district, itself covering the former NP yards – initially served SP&S lines until the 1920’s by which time Hill and Harriman were long gone from the scene.

first steel bridge

The OWR&N – still known as the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, OR&N in 1888 – and the Oregon & California Railroad – absorbed by the Southern Pacific Railroad shared the main Portland Terminal with the NP and the GN.  To connect to the depot since their lines ran into Portland on the east side of the Willamette, the original Steel Bridge was constructed in 1888 – the only one of the Portland rail bridges not owned by the SP&S.

The name came from the fact that the bridge’s material, steel, was a first for the upcoming city.  It consisted of a swing-spanned double deck bridge.  The upper section was for pedestrians, horses, wagons and street cars while locomotives ran on a lower deck allowing for a level grade between East Portland and the new depot.

steel bridge3 2.0

By the early Twentieth century, the now OWR&N decided a replacement for the Steel Bridge was in order.  The bridge envisioned to carry only rail traffic originally became modified at the City’s insistence to retain the former multi-use bridge with the double deck.  The two big new factors included a vertical lift to replace the swing span where the lower deck could lift independently of the upper deck for smaller vessels.  The bridge remains the only telescoping dual-lift bridge in the world, opening in the summer of 1912.

The mechanisms of the telescoping dual lift required engineering ingenuity.  The vertical lift of the bridge covers 211 feet across with another 290-foot non-lift section to west side and a 300-foot non-lift section connects the span to the east side.  The lower deck can raise 72 feet into the upper truss system.  Raising both decks take the combined span to 163 feet above the river.  Two massive counterweights serve the upper deck with another eight helping lift the lower deck – total weight almost 4,100 metric tons.  The lower deck can be affected by high water.  In 1948, the deck submerged under five feet of water while water touched the lower deck in both 1964 and 1996.  Normal river level is 26 feet below the lower deck.

steel bridge today

Ownership of the bridge resides with the UP today.  The upper deck leased to the Oregon Department of Transportation and subleased to TriMet for use of light rail trains.  Besides the extensive usage by the light rail trains – over 600 crossings a day – the bridge still serves automobiles. 

At one time, the bridge served as the main part of US 99W’s route through Portland and down the Willamette Valley’s western side.  Until the Interstate 5 route completed along the east bank of the river and the Marquam Bridge finished, the Steel Bridge remained vital to both rail and auto transportation.