The Lewis and Clark Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans the Columbia River between Longview, Washington and Rainier, Oregon. At the time of completion, it had the longest cantilever span.
The bridge was open on March 29, 1930 as a privately owned bridge named the Longview Bridge. The $5.8 million cost was recovered by tolls, $1.00 for cars and $.10 for pedestrians. At the time it was the longest and highest cantilever bridge in the United States. The state of Washington purchased the bridge in 1947 and the tolls were removed in 1965 after the bridge was paid for. In 1980 the bridge was rededicated as the Lewis and Clark Bridge in honor of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The deck was replaced in 2003–04 at a cost of $29.2 million.
The bridge is 8,288 ft (2.5 km) long with 210 ft (64 m) of vertical clearance. The main span is 1,200 ft (366 m) long and the top of the bridge is 340 ft (104 m) above the river. It was designed by Joseph Strauss, engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge.
On July 1, 1982, the bridge, listed as the Longview Bridge (Structure, #82004208), was entered on the National Register of Historic Places.
Famous quotes containing the words lewis, clark and/or bridge:
“They have to prove their superiority every day. It’s their one tremendous weakness.”
—Edmund H. North, British screenwriter, and Lewis Gilbert. Captain Shepard (Kenneth More)
“Perceiving myself through others’ ideas of what it means to be a woman has made it difficult for me to achieve the necessary commitment [to be a poet].”
—Naomi Clark (b. 1932)
“It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O, my soul.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)