Opening in 1912, the Steel Bridge is not only the second oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the United States, but also the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world. It carries road and Portland MAX light rail traffic on its upper deck and main line railroad traffic on the lower (with pedestrians on both). It is located just east of Union Station and was likely part of VC tower's span of control. It's actually a common misconception that downtown Portland sits on the Columbia River, when in fact it is on a tributary, the Willamette.
The bridge carries the MAX Red, Blue, Green and Yellow lines, with flat junctions at each end. Below MAX SD660 #309 on a Yellow routing diverges onto the North-South downtown alignment at the western junction.
Here SD660 LRV's #311 and #304 taking a green line routing into downtown at the west end of the double deck Steel Bridge.
Here SD660 #303 and #225 on a Red routing take the opposite path towards the east-west downtown alignment.
The Steel Bridge has a two lane truss containing both MAX tracks and two single lane wings on the side for road traffic.
The bridge is just downstream from Portland Pacific Grain Terminal.
MAX SD660 #313 on a Blue routing approaching the bridge from the east.
MAX SD660 #252, in a 1980's retro paint scheme, sits in front of the Portland Trailblazers' arena at the Rose Quarter station just prior to entering east bridge jct.
Directly east of the Steel Bridge is EAST PORTLAND interlocking where the route to the passenger station splits from the Union Pacific Portland Sub. While there I caught this Union Pacific light engine move with ES44AC's #8114 and #7786.
EAST PORTLAND interlocking also functions as Portland Union Stations turning wye and every day Amtrak Train 28, the Portland section of Amtrak's eastbound Empire Builder Train 8, goes for a spin in order to head back west out of the station to reach the BNSF Columbia River route on the north bank. Train 28 consists of coaches, a sleeper and the sightseer lounge/cafe car, which will join with Train 8 in Spokane on the midnight after departure. Today, Train 28's power consisted of a single ALC-42 Charger, #310.
The lower level of the Steel Bridge hangs from the upper level truss above it, but can be lifted independently due to its extremely low height over the water. The hangers then telescope up into the deck above.
Close access to the lower level is provided by an attached walk/cycleway. Sounds from MAX trains passing overhead are quite interesting.
Mixed road and rail bridges were quite popular in the western parts of the country up through WW2. The Steel Bridge is one of the few that has not been regressed to just rail.
The Steel Bridge is just a short ways down river from the double bascule Broadway Bridge, which carries Portland Streetcar tracks.
Back over at Union Station, the Empire Builder Portland Section had returned and was hanging out with a Cascades trainset and Cabbage Car F40 # 90251.
Walking around on the Broadway Bridge approach provided this fantastic view of Union Station.
Wandering around the Knob Hill neighborhood I ran into Portland Streetcars #003 and #006. Although operated separately from the MAX might rail, the Portland Streetcars are compatible with MAX tracks.
Later that might I returned to the suburbs via the western light rail trunk. Here we see SD660 LRVs #221 and #213 departs the Sunset Transit Center after letting me off. The sharp U-turn curve at the west end of the station is protested by a timer signal that we can see changing from Stop to Clear.
I did ride a bus on my visit, but it was a transplanted London double decker that had been turned into a cafe.
I did ride a bus on my visit, but it was a transplanted London double decker that had been turned into a cafe.
Another non-rail activity took me past the Saint John's Bridge. This 1200 foot span suspension bridge opened in 1931 across the Willamette River (not the Columbia).
On the way back from that I caught BNSF GP38-2 #2268 and Burlington Northern painted GP38-2 #2093 sitting just west of Fallbridge Yard.
Returning to the airport I once again had to transfer to a shuttle bus at Gateway Transportation center. Here S700 #529 stands adjacent to a 4-headed IRT style junction signal.
Well that's it for my Portland trip. It was a great city and I hope to return some day soon, perhaps in conjunction with a Train 28/27 ride.
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