Historic Hood River
Approaching Multnomah Falls
3-13-2020
Notes
Another plate from the book collected by Bus Gibson of Columbia River Highway scenes:
Where rail, road and river meet. A monster concrete viaduct built upon a solid base of rock, with retaining walls constructed by old-world Italians. The walls of dry masonry, of which there are about two miles, have been built to conform with their scenic environments. The Highway’s architectural beauty is a scenic asset in itself.
Unfortunately one hundred years of traffic and weather has worn down the viaducts a bit. The east and west viaducts are due for some expensive repairs so they can survive another hundred years.
nels
Lovely shot Arthur. And a real increase in vegetation there.
GC
What is the title of Bus Gibson's book that today's picture of the Columbia River Highway is taken from?
Thank you.
ArthurB
GC, the book is a folio bound with yarn. Each image is glued to a page with a caption. The title page says “Oregon's Famous Columbia River Highway.” It was published by Lipschuetz and Katz, Portland. I don't see a copyright date, but it looks like it's about 1920.
L.E.
Well, it once was a beautiful view.
ArthurB
ODOT is working to open up some of these vistas again. They recently worked at Shepperd's Dell. I hope they open up this view when they rebuild the viaduct.
Stever
Thank you ArthurB and the HR History Musem for sharing these images with everyone … My Dad is likely giddy ( his word ) from above knowing that these pics once concealed within a book with a front and back cover are now much more accessible to many !
Please be sure to click on the google maps arrows both forwards and backwards- E and W – to get a grasp of the RR tracks just below and the near location to M falls.
I spy a motor car in the distance and perhaps a spiff of smoke far away along the Oregon shore and a rail road pole between the railing- With a few darker colors in the foliage – perhaps it is an early fall time frame ?
Thank you all again- Steve
Susan Turner
I'd love to be able to get prints of these artistic plates of the highway.
Kenn
The older photo appears to be the east viaduct looking east from the falls and close to the river,
The after looks like the west viaduct looking east toward the falls. .
B
The old print is the east viaduct looking east, the street view is the west viaduct looking east. Whoops.
ArthurB
Thanks for the correction. This is the east viaduct, so I have replaced the “modern view” with one which is much closer. For some reason I thought only the west viaduct had those unusual railings– but here we see the east viaduct has them too.