MONUMENTAL PUBLIC WORKS: FREMONT BRIDGE

What you see in the picture is the westside offramp off the Fremont Bridge here in Portland.

I was cruising north on Front Ave past the Hawthorne Bridge, my most traveled Portland span across the Willamette, past the Morrison with it’s I-5 N access.

The Burnside Bridge, Steel Bridge, Big Red passed by, and finally the monumental Fremont Bridge.

The center span of the Fremont sailed up the Willamette.

Portlandia sailed into Portland under the Fremont; sailors used to climb to the top on Rose Festival Fleet Week and steal the flags from the top.

For sheer size and effort the Fremont Bridge rules the Willamette River.

I like to imagine what the area looked like during construction.

Or look at this picture.

This is looking east. The triangle of traffic lanes in the foreground sends traffic to the industrial NW to the left and 405 to the right.

I shot the top pic near the tip of the bottom open triangle.

2

The Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan was within my reach when I lived in Brooklyn. Never walked across. I lived in New York, man, I wasn’t some damn tourist.

Then I moved back to Oregon.

Now I wish I’d taken that walk.

3

I drove the Walt Whitman Bridge between Philadelphia and Camden, NJ when I lived in Philly.

The Delaware River was way down there. I learned more about Delaware a few years later.

4

Some say our childhood memories are just that. We’re young and impressionable and our memories are nothing more than immature fantasies.

Except that’s not how it works when you grow up in the shadow of one of the world’s most beautiful bridges. It’s got many names, my favorite being the North Bend Bridge.

The nice thing about the North Bend Bridge? It doesn’t have a bad side.

It’s like many bridges into one.

Maybe memories fail when confronted by the huge structure of the Fremont, but this one is the lasting beauty.