Historic Hood River
Mouth of the Hood River
Notes
We don’t see the railroad bridge over the Hood River from this angle often. The first bridge at this site was constructed 1882-83 with the initial OR&N Co. tracks through the Gorge. It had a distinctive squared off face on each end, as you can see here. It was replaced sometime after 1896 with a bridge with the more traditional trusses slanted at the entrance, likely around 1901 when the rail was realigned to take out the big bend in the track. In 1907 the current steel bridge was constructed.
There is a little mystery here. We have this Samuel Blythe image of the same bridge, from the other side. The supports and abutments are identical, even the view of the supports from the older bridge alignment match. I can see piles of rocks in the same places and would say this is the same bridge, except for one thing: the bridge in the link has 12 trusses, and this one has 13. Close examination of this image shows two of the trusses at each end are constructed like “extensions” onto a single span, so perhaps the bridge was extended for some reason between the last image and this one.
Another oddity is that the wagon bridge we’re familiar with doesn’t look the same here (barely visible under the bridge on the right side). It seems to have a temporary ramp down to the flood plain. We know the bridge washed out often because it wasn’t high enough to clear the river at flood stage, and we have an Ella May Davidson photograph of what appears to be a temporary bridge at this spot. I think this might have been one of those summers when they diverted traffic to rebuild the wagon bridge yet again.
L.E.
Sooo……are we downstream of this photo http://historichoodriver.com/index.php?showimage=159 looking up at the flat floodplain?
This was definitely an ever changing scene. If the water was high, the ferry boat could go above this area and unload cars?
http://historichoodriver.com/index.php?showimage=670
Residents no longer have to live with all the instability of changing water levels.
Alan Winston
This bridge is mostly wood, with metal tension rods, while the "Samuel Blythe image" looks to have mostly iron or steel I-beams in the trusses.
Alan Winston
I should have added that many metal bridges of this size were basically kits, created by bridge manufacturers for final assembly on-site. The railroads occasionally dismantled a bridge for various reasons and re-assembled it in a different location. The date on the bridge plate would (usually? always? sometimes?) be the date of manufacture, which could be quite different from the date of installation at its present whereabouts. Wooden bridges could also be assembled from standard component sizes, which could be re-used. The wood bridge here may have been a temporary expedient while awaiting the permanent "kit," which would be assembled alongside and then quickly slid into place with minimal interruption to rail traffic.
ArthurB
I took a closer look based on Alan's expert analysis, and all the details seem to back up his theory. This bridge is definitely wood with steel tension rods. The "Blythe bridge" photo isn't clear enough to be 100% sure, but the members are slimmer so I think it's a safe bet they were steel or iron. So we know have good evidence for four different railroad bridges at this site: as photographed by Watkins, then Laraway, then Blythe, and finally our current bridge which Alan warns may not have been installed in 1907, despite the date plate.
Alan Winston
Look at the heavier truss elements toward the right end of the Blythe bridge, and you can see the shadows indicative of I-beams. I've also been wondering if maybe the Laraway wood bridge didn't replace the iron/steel Blythe Bridge as a temporary expedient following some sort of damage to the Blythe bridge. It might be worth looking for some mention of a derailment on or near the bridge in that era. The Laraway bridge kind of looks later and perhaps stronger than the Blythe bridge.