Historic Hood River
Reconstruction
6-16-2020
Notes
Here’s a good view of the 1938 reconstruction of the north approach to the Hood River White Salmon Interstate Bridge. The completion of the Bonneville Dam made it necessary to add the lift span and remove this approach from the flood plain. You can see the water is working its way up to the roadway. The new approach with concrete piers and steel trusses is still in service today.
nels
Confusing picture – at least for me. Where is the roadway?
Arlen L Sheldrake
At least this former HR resident has very little understanding of all the impacts the building of the Bonneville Dam had on our stretch of the Columbia. I do remember father John saying that one of the many conversations at the time was "who will ever use all that electricity?" this is an outstanding picture clearly showing the new and old bridges. did the federal government pay for the new bridge?
how about a future Museum exhibit….Bonneville Dam and Its Changes
Kenn
I assume the approaches, and probably the bridge, had the rattling wood plank deck as I remember at Cascade Locks.
ArthurB
The two lower ramps are the north and south lanes of the original bridge. The higher roadway was the replacement built in 1938, which we still have today.
Kenn
Present road on top, old approach spans from the highway and from the lowland, Wonder if the WA highway had the number 730 at the time. Before it was changed to 14 I believe it was the highest numbered in the US.
L.E.
Looking at photo #2174 https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=2174 the 1924 original did not have the south approach.
ArthurB
Good catch LE. I’ve taken a look at a couple of dozen photos before and during construction. The middle roadway is the original bridge. The one to the right appears to be a temporary construction related ramp. The one to the left is the new roadway under construction.
Jeffrey Bryant
There were several options for the original White Salmon approach to the Interstate Bridge. They are discussed in the Hood River Glacier, 1924-10-09, page 10.
https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1924-10-09/ed-1/seq-10/