Historic Hood River
Talbot Bridge
2-21-2020
Notes
An HHR reader has graciously shared a collection of books his father, Bus Gibson, collected over his lifetime. One of the books is a compilation of hand coloered photographs of the Columbia River Highway shortly after it was built. This view shows the long gone Talbot Bridge, near Latourelle Falls. According to the accompanying text, the private landowner’s property was split by the new highway, so he built a bridge “in Japanese design” over the highway.
Kyle
Gorgeous. Why is it gone? I guess if it was only used by the land owner, and he later had the lower part annexed by the state for the highway….?
L.E.
Beautiful. Wouldn’t work so well for today’s semi trucks.
If you drive along the Columbia River and think about how first the railroad bisected properties, then 2 lane highways, and now freeways have made it totally impossible to leisurely enjoy your property on both sides.
My husband’s family had a small farm on the lower Columbia, with a road down to the steamboat landing on the river. When the railroad went in, the family had a right of way across the tracks to the landing. The railroad put in a crossing. Years later, when there was no longer a steamboat landing, the family would still use the crossing to walk or drive down to the river. But eventually, the railroad put in new tracks and eliminated the crossing.
L.E.
Even the fence is quite attractive.
ArthurB
I asked our friends at ODOT what happened to this bridge. They sent me a plan which shows it was made of wood. They’re not sure what happened to it, but observe it likely deteriorated, or may have been removed because of limited horizontal and vertical clearance.
Kenn
Part of the abutments remain
Kenn
SteveR, thanks for sharing