Collection is open for research.
Gift of Faith Stefens/Oregon Department of Transportation, January 1981 (Lib. Acc. 15381; Photo Acc. 981D014).
The Fremont Bridge in Portland, Oregon, which carries Interstate 405 and U.S. 30 traffic over the Willamette River, opened on November 15, 1973. With a main span length of 1,255 feet, it was the longest tied-arch bridge in the world until 2004. At the time, the March 1973 hoisting of the 900-foot, 6,000-ton center span, which was floated 1.7 miles up the Willamette on two barges from its assembly site at Swan Island, was the heaviest bridge lift ever completed. During the 50-hour lift, the span was raised 175 feet using 32 hydraulic jacks.
Source: "The Portland Bridge Book," 3rd edition, by Sharon Wood Wortman with Ed Wortman (Portland: Urban Adventure Press, 2006)
Fremont Bridge construction slides, Org. Lot 99, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of fifty-six 35 mm color slides taken during construction of the Fremont Bridge in March 1973. The slides depict the bridge's main span being transported down the Willamette River by barge and lifted into place. The slides were taken for the Oregon Department of Transportation by an unidentified photographer. The collection also includes typescript descriptions of each slide. Researchers should note that the descriptions include incorrect dates for some images. Though the descriptions give a date of March 21, 1973, for slides showing the bridge span before it was lifted into place, the lift actually occurred several days earlier, on March 15-16.
Film footage of the Fremont Bridge construction that was received with the slides was separated to the moving image collections at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.