Historic Hood River
Hood River From East Side
10-4-2011
Notes
We don’t have a solid date for this image of Hood River from the east side, but it predates the 1906 construction of the Mt. Hood Railroad. The main line crosses the Hood River on a wooden trestle. The abutments for an even earlier wooden bridge remain just upstream.
This vantage point offers a nice view up Oak Street. Note the broad flood plain of the Hood River.
spinsur
just throwing this out there Arthur, but that ORRN bridge looks to be a little different than the one we have today on the UP mainline. I think it’s wooden truss with cable stays. I believe the current steel UP bridge dates to 1907. Wondering if the upstream abutment is actually the current location, perhaps that is a new abutment under construction?
l.e.
Neat photo.
Bonneville Dam eliminated the flood plain didn’t it?
The flooding Hood River must have wreaked havoc with that wooden structure.
Is that the Livery Stable straight ahead?
spinsur
the trestle portion of the picture is now on fill, and off camera to the left would be the State street bridge, and state street on fill. if you look closely, or zoom in, one can see the ORRN station; approximately that area is where the exisiting mt hood railroad would bisect the picture, protected by a berm. the area between this berm, and the UP fill is now tall cottonwoods, and floods most every season.
spinsur
I s’pose it was probably near continual, but there’s a track crew working in this picture!
Arthur
Yes, the ORRN bridge is the pre-1907 wooden one. I’ll post a better picture of it later. The current UP bridge has a concrete abutment, I’m guessing this was several years before it was constructed.
andrew b
I can hardly recognize the river it is so different. It would be great to see a photo from the exact spot today. I wonder if those pilings are still underground when they filled it in to make the railyard.
Arthur
Hopefully they removed the pilings. Wood does not make very good fill– old railroad ties mixed with fill in the dike have been reported as the reason for the Vanport Flood.