Page:Final Report - The Columbia River Interstate Bridge.pdf/19

 completed structure, and are also indicated in the ﬁnancial statement. Beginning with an amount of money insufficient, according to early reports, even for a bridge with a 24-ft. roadway and one approach on the Oregon side (main bridge, $1,660,700; Oregon approach, $420,000), the design both of substructure and superstructure proved to be so ﬁtting and economical and conditions for construction according to these designs so favorable, that the bridge was completed with a 38-ft. roadway, with concrete floor, wholly ﬁre-proof, and with two approaches on the Oregon side, within the funds ($1,790,000) and with a balance of the original fund left with each county (totaling $56,000).

But we have attempted to serve you broadly; not alone along technical lines, but in the administration and in the general business of buying a bridge and getting full value for the money spent; in the study of the broad and general needs of the public for transportation facilities, which was a large factor in determining the recommendation for the location of the bridge and approaches, in assisting with negotiations for the acquirement of the rights-of-way and other properties; in drafting tentative franchises for street railway operation; in the determination of tolls to be charged; in arranging a scheme of organization for the operating department, and in the general problems of administration. We have tried always to give the same careful and detailed attention to every question submitted to us as we have to essentially engineering problems. In this connection, we would like to add, that never in a long experience of similar undertakings have we known more sympathetic, broad-minded and intelligent co-operation from a legal department than you have received and we have enjoyed at the hands of Mr. Walter H. Evans, District Attorney, and his associates.

The Columbia River Interstate Bridge is a great public work carried through with intelligence. economy and efficiency. It should always be a source of gratification and pride to the members of the Columbia River Interstate Bridge Commission, for it cannot but long be known as a monument to their public service.

John Lyle Harrington,

Ernest E. Howard,

Consulting Engineers.