Steel Bridge

The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double-deck vertical-lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, opened in 1912. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries road traffic (on the Pacific Highway West No. 1W, former Oregon Route 99W), and light rail (MAX), making the bridge one of the most multimodal in the world. It is the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world and the second oldest vertical-lift bridge in North America, after the nearby Hawthorne Bridge. The bridge links the Rose Quarter and Lloyd District in the east to Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in the west.

The bridge was completed in 1912 and replaced the previous Steel Bridge built in 1888 as a double-deck swing-span bridge. The 1888 structure was the first railroad bridge across the Willamette River in Portland. Its name originated because steel, instead of wrought iron, was used in the original bridge's construction, which was very unusual for the time. When the current Steel Bridge opened, it was simply given its predecessor's name.

The bridge was designed by the engineering firm of Waddell & Harrington, which was based in Kansas City, Missouri, but also had an office in Portland. The structure was built by Union Pacific Railroad and the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company (OWR&N) at a cost of $1.7 million (equivalent to $55 million in 2024). It opened in July 1912 to rail traffic and on August 9, 1912, to automobiles.

The 1888 Steel Bridge (upper deck) had been crossed by horse-drawn streetcars from the time of its opening and then by the city's first electric streetcar line starting in November 1889. When the present Steel Bridge opened in 1912, the streetcar lines (all electric by then) moved to it, starting on September 8, 1912. Streetcar service across the Steel continued until August 1, 1948, when the last car lines using it, the Alberta and Broadway Lines, were abandoned. A single line of Portland's once-extensive trolley bus system also used the bridge; the Williams Avenue line crossed the Steel Bridge from 1937 until October 9, 1949. (Many years later, in 1986, electric transit vehicles returned to the bridge in the form of MAX Light Rail and later the Portland Vintage Trolley.)

The lower deck of the bridge was threatened by major floods in 1948, 1964, and 1996. The bridge was closed for three days because of the danger during the February 1996 floods.

In 1950, the Steel Bridge and its newly reconstructed approaches became part of a new U.S. 99W highway connecting Harbor Drive and Interstate Avenue.

In the 1960s, the bridge was sought for use by Interstate 5, which was later moved to the Marquam Bridge. Construction of the freeway instead brought the addition to the Steel Bridge of a new viaduct leading onto I-84 from the bridge's eastbound lanes.

In 1972, the bridge became part of Route 99W, replacing the US 99W designation. Harbor Drive, and by extension the ramps onto it from the bridge, was demolished from 1972 to 1974. It was replaced by Tom McCall Waterfront Park.