June 13, 1931
The St. Johns Bridge was dedicated in Portland, Oregon. This steel suspension bridge, which carries the U.S. Route 30 Bypass over the Willamette River, links Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood with the industrial area near the community of Linnton.
Renowned engineer David B. Steinman (1886-1960), whose many structural accomplishments include Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge, helped design the St. Johns Bridge. The St. Johns Bridge was built in only about 21 months; in addition, that project ended up being a million dollars under budget.
The dedication ceremony for the bridge was postponed one month so that it could serve as the main attraction during the 23rd annual Portland Rose Festival. When completed, this structure had the longest suspension span in the region of the United States that is west of Detroit, Michigan; the highest navigational clearance of any bridge in the nation; the longest-ever prefabricated steel cable rope strands; and the world’s tallest steel frame piers of reinforced concrete. The St. Johns Bridge, with its 400-foot (120-meter) towers and 205-foot (62-meter) navigational clearance, remains the tallest structure of its kind in Portland.
Steinman selected green as the color scheme for the bridge, explaining that this would allow the structure to better harmonize with the multitude of nearby trees. A little less than three months before the bridge was formally opened, public officials announced that choice of green as the color on — appropriately enough — St. Patrick’s Day.
Photo Credit: Cacophony (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
For more information on the St. Johns Bridge, please check out https://structurae.net/en/structures/saint-johns-bridge
Transportation History 