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St. Johns Bridge, Light Streaks
 
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Image is copyrighted and may not be copied or used without permission.
Location: Portland, Oregon
St. Johns Bridge: Finished in 1931, the steel suspension St. Johns Bridge is arguably the
most beautiful in the city, connecting North Portland to US-30 northwest
of the city. Sadly, since the bridge lies a few miles west of the city,
many visitors to Portland never see this marvelous structure, which is
a designated historical landmark. [1]
Contrary to popular urban legend, this bridge was not designed
by Joseph Strauss, the designer of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
It was designed by Holton Robinson and David Steinman, who inspected their
finished work by taking a stunt airplane ride over and under the bridge.[2]
It was painted pale green to blend into the landscape; someone had
earlier made the now absurd suggestion of painting it with yellow and black
stripes to make the bridge visible to aircraft (!). [3] Keep in mind,
though, that this was a huge structure for 1931 - 400-foot-high towers,
a 1,207-foot main span, and clearance of 205 feet at low water [4] - and
it dwarfed the other Portland bridges by comparison. The Marquam
and Fremont bridges were still almost forty years in the future.
Steinman went on to distinguish himself as a world-famous bridge designer
and expert, designing notable bridges such as the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.
Perhap the reason that Strauss is so often inaccurately credited with
designing the St. Johns Bridge is that he did design another Oregon
bridge, the Lewis and Clark Bridge (aka, Longview Bridge) across the Columbia
River in 1930 [5]. Plus, the St Johns is a suspension bridge that
vaugely resembles the Golden Gate.
Work to renovate the St. Johns Bridge - including repainting it and fixing things like burnt-out lights - started in 2003 and was mostly finished by late 2005. Many of my photos here were shot before the renovation - you can tell by the fact that 2 of the 4 red lights at the top of the bridge had been burnt out plus the bridge was really rusty. It looks great now!
This Shoot: When I got up on this particular morning around 5AM, it was completely clouded over and rainy. I decided to drive 20 minutes out to the Saint Johns Bridge anyway - I was already up, why not? - not expecting much. I shot about 30 frames with my digital camera as the day began. The first photos are not the most appealing, with dark clouds overhead, but amazingly, they parted to reveal some blue sky and give me a couple of nice shots, one of which I use for my business card.
References:
[1] Smith, Dwight. Historic Highway Bridges of Oregon. Second
Edition. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society, 1989. P. 113.
[2] Petroski, Henry. Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders
and the Spanning of America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1995. P. 334-335.
[3] ibid, P. 382.
[4] Smith, P. 113.
[5] ibid.
| PhotoID D300CRW04192 Specifications: | |
| Size: | 1440x2160 pixels, 300DPI up to 4.80" x 7.20" |
| Largest Print Size: | Great Prints up to 16"x24" in size (larger may still be acceptable in some cases) |
| Camera Exposure/Specs: | 8 Sec, f22, ISO 100, Lens 28.0 to 135.0 at 28mm |
| Shoot Time/Day: | 02/28/2002 - 06:26 PST |
