Page:Final Report - The Columbia River Interstate Bridge.pdf/22

 the tracks of the company in that strip. The city of Portland later fulﬁlled both of your conditions.

The Engineers had, in the meantime, been occupied with preliminaryborings and soundings for the several bridges. As soon as the locations were ﬁxed these investigations were pushed to conclusion and preliminary plans for the bridges over the main channel of the Columbia River, over Oregon Slough and over Columbia Slough were prepared and copies were submitted to the Secretary of War with applications for permits for construction. The customary public hearing before the Engineers of the War Department was held in Portland on April 20th, and on June 12th, 1914 tentative approval of the plans was secured from the Secretary of \Var. The preparation of ﬁnal detailed plans and speciﬁcations was immediately undertaken.

The Legal Department had been proceeding during the same months and had taken the necessary steps by certain friendly suits to establish the validity of the bond issues to such good purpose that on July 14, 1914, the last necessary action was concluded by a favorable decision of the Supreme Court of Oregon relative to the Oregon bonds. The ﬁnancial disturbance caused by the beginning of the war in Europe in August, 1914, made it impracticable to dispose of the bonds immediately. but in November each County satisfactorily placed a portion of its bonds, and preliminary funds were secured. Upon advice of your Engineers, however, that in the still unsettled condition of the money market and the uneasiness of contractors in becoming largely involved unless all funds were provided, the remaining bonds were placed in December, 1914, so that the entire funds were on hand to pay for the work. The correctness of the Commission's action in this matter was thoroughly demonstrated when the bids for the work were received, for they were unexpectedly and agreeably low.

On January 11, 1915, the ﬁnal detailed plans and speciﬁcations for the construction were submitted by the Engineers, were approved and adopted by the Commission, and advertisements for bids ordered. On February 23, 1915, bids were received from twenty-four contractors. Acting on previous instructions from your Commission, and as later described, your Engineers had prepared complete plans for two different designs for the main structure over the Columbia River channel, one containing a movable span of the swing type, and the other one of the vertical lift type. The lowest combination of bids received for each design showed a saving by the use of the vertical lift type of