Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/479



A citizen from Yarmany,

Who heard him from the brewery, Sang out, "Young fellow, stop dot shouet !

Dot pridge, you bet, was pout blayed ouet; Some dings I know I tole you soon,

Dem land agents was d schmart coons,

Dot eye vas in my pridge, you bet !

Dot pridge across dot Villamette."

So winter rains and summer flowers.

Passed on with sad and pleasant hours; Yet still sat on the river bank,

A man bald-headed, lean and lank. Grown old still singing the same tune —

" 'Tis coming, coming, coming soon ! They're going to build, I feel it yet,

A bridge across the Willamette."

Years pass'd — there came a trav'ler roun'

To visit our East Portland town ; As on the river bank he stood,

He saw a sight that froze his blood; Right there beneath the glowing sun,

There sat a ghostly skeleton, Which turned its hideous, fleshless head.

And grinned most horribly, and said: "They're going to build, I feel it yet,

A bridge across the Willamette."

The bridge built by contractors was not a very substantial structure, and had to be replaced by the present fine bridge at the foot of Morrison street, erected in 1895.

But before the old Morrison street bridge was condemned, the city had pur- chased from the owners a private corporation bridge which had been erected at the foot of Madison street; and also on its own account erected a new steel bridge at the foot of Burnside street. The Madison street bridge was a real estate speculation on the part of people owning town lot lands on Hawthorne avenue in East Portland, and who had put a little street railroad on the avenue ; and the bridge was to enable the railroad to get across the river into old Portland and help sell out the Hawthorne avenue lots. It was a good speculation ; and the people woke up one morning to find that Mayor Mason had bought the bridge of the speculators, also for the city, at about twice its value. After be- ing used for about fifteen years, with constant repairs, the bridge was condemned as unsafe, and now, after being closed for two years, the Madison street bridge is replaced by a new steel bridge erected on the plan of a "lift up" span between two towers to allow ships to pass underneath, instead of a swing span, as in the other bridges.

The city now owns three steel bridges crossing the Willamette, and also rents the upper deck of the railroad bridge at the foot of Holladay avenue; and the growth of population and business in the city is such that all four of these bridges are now packed with teams, automobiles and street cars from end to end, all day long. To relieve this congestion of traffic on the bridges, the city by ref- erendum vote, has authorized the erection of another bridge at the foot of Broadway street at the north end of the city, the money raised, commencement work temporarily delayed by litigation, and now decided, and engineers at work on plans.