Bridges
Portland is sometimes known as "Bridgetown," due to the number of bridges that cross its two rivers. There are eight bridges entering downtown and immediately adjacent areas. The bridges are (south to north):
- Ross Island Bridge, which connects U.S. Route 26 (SE Powell Blvd.) to the South Waterfront district high-rises
- Marquam Bridge, a two-deck bridge carrying I-5 across the Willamette River
- Hawthorne Bridge, the city's oldest highway bridge and Oregon's most heavily used bridge for bicycles, leading directly into the central business district (CBD) from the east side
- Morrison Bridge, leading directly into the CBD from the east side
- Burnside Bridge, connecting the east side to downtown and the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood
- Steel Bridge, the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world, and carrying MAX Light Rail and Amtrak into Old Town Chinatown
- Broadway Bridge, connecting the Lloyd District to Old Town Chinatown
- Fremont Bridge, carrying I-405 past the Pearl and Northwest districts and into downtown
There are two other road bridges within Portland across the Willamette—but they're outside the downtown area. See List of crossings of the Willamette River.
Read more about this topic: Downtown Portland
Famous quotes containing the word bridges:
“There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)
“Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.”
—Madeline Bridges (fl. C. 1840)
“... this single span,
Reaching for the world, as our lives do,
As all lives do, reaching that we may give
The best of what we are and hold as true:
Always it is by bridges that we live.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)