Historic Hood River
Second Century
Notes
At 10AM on December 6, 1924 the Hood River White Salmon Bridge was dedicated in a short ceremony and quickly opened to traffic. Transit was free for the day, and The Hood River Glacier reported that many Hood River residents got to visit White Salmon and the Underwood Heights for the first time. While this sounds incredible, the cost of a ferry crossing was significant– $2 round trip had the purchasing power of roughly $36 today.
This unusually serene view of the bridge is captioned “Up Stream Side” in old ink. You can see the original concrete piers only supported part of the bridge. Close to half the bridge was originally built from wood, with the approaches constructed with wood decking on wood trestles. All of the decking was wood, even for the steel truss sections. While they knew this wood not last, they were making the bet they could raise funds to reconstruct the wooden parts of the bridge through toll revenues. Most of this upgrade was accomplished about 15 years later when much of the bridge was reconstructed to meet the rising waters behind the Bonneville Dam. While it’s hard to be sure, it appears the Bonneville Dam project provided a major windfall for the Oregon Washington Bridge Company. Costs of reconstruction apparently shifting to the Federal government and its New Deal dam project.
For those of you thinking, “But wait, didn’t we celebrate the bridge centennial two months ago?” you are correct. The Port of Hood River, who purchased the bridge from the Oregon Washington Bridge Company in the 1940s, decided to play the weather dice and celebrate in October instead of December. Their bet paid off as October 6 was a spectacular day– sunny, warm, and windless. Today? Not so much. When the bridge was opened December 6 1924 the ceremony and celebration was intentionally brief as weather wasn’t great. They promised a more elaborate celebration the following spring, but I haven’t found any evidence that celebration ever happened.
Tags: 1920s, anniversary, bridge, Hood River White Salmon Interstate Bridge
Dale Nicol
Arthur, as you noted the windless day provided a beautiful photograph reflecting the bridge. Looks like maybe some snow on the mountain peaks in Washington too.
kmb
What a beautiful picture to commemorate 100 years!! Any idea of the date this picture was actually taken?
L. E.
Beautiful!! I did not realize the river could be this calm before the backwater from the dam was in place.