Bridging the Willamette River in Salem

[1]  While the red and white lawn signs about the 3^rd Bridge debate are new on our city’s landscape, animated discussion over Salem’s Willamette River crossings in the public sphere is not.  From maintenance to siting, these discussions have taken up a lot of newsprint over the years and many of the arguments and ideas haven’t changed much.

Salem’s first major bridge to cross the Willamette River was finished in 1886 at the site of the present-day Center Street Bridge.  Before that time all crossing was done via ferry.  With pride the Willamette Farmer newspaper reported that: “Salem has a beautiful bridge that is free to all, and makes Polk County a nearer neighbor than ever.  There is now no tax on being neighborly, and the old steam ferry has pulled down its wire rope and hauled off—a thing of the past.”[2]  It appears there may have been some circumventing of government review in the design of the bridge and within a year Salem was forced to dig a canal around the west end and put a bigger opening in the bridge.[3]

Salem’s first bridge stood less than four years before it was washed out by flooding in 1890.  The Daily Astorian reported: “What was the pride of two counties now lies in Kaiser’s [sic] bottom below Salem.  At just twenty minutes to two yesterday afternoon the south one of the center piers on the Marion county side swung around, apparently from the bottom, bent and cracked, just above the water line and crashed to the bottom of the river, followed by the two main spans of the big bridge.  The crash was awful… All that is left today to tell the story of the big free bridge is the Center-street approach and its two supporting piers.”[4]  A poetical tribute was written in the Capital Journal, comparing the bridge to a marriage between Marion and Polk counties that ended before the honeymoon.  It concludes: “Thou we grieve with honest sorrow/For the bride we could not bury/and dread that on the morrow/we must tread the old steam ferry.”[5]

After the washout, much public debate was had about what to do.  Issues of whether the government or a private company would rebuild the bridge, how long it would take and if the government should provide a free or toll ferry for crossings in the meantime were hotly debated.[6]  Eventually it was decided that the City of Salem, Marion County and Polk County would jointly fund the $60,000 construction of a new steel bridge with concrete piers at the Center Street site.[7]  The opening of the bridge in 1891 was met with public distain, at least on the part of the news media, which complained that the bridge was $25,000 over budget and sloppily built with the potential to wash away at the first heavy rain. Criticism continued for the next two decades until the bridge was eventually condemned by the highway department.[8]  [9]  Despite the condemnation by the highway department, the old bridge was moved to span Riffe Lake on the Cowlitz River in southwest Washington after being scrapped in Salem to make way for a new bridge in 1918.[10]

The 3^rd Center Street bridge opened at the height of U.S. involvement in WWI and the dedication ceremonies were themed to patriotically support the troops in France.  There was a carnival and presentations made by Willamette President Carl Doney and Portland Doctor Esther Pohl Lovejoy who recently visited the frontlines.  An auction was held for the right to be the first vehicle across the new bridge.  Overall $3,000 was raised for the Red Cross and war efforts.  The third time seemed to be a charm for Salem, as the new bridge stood for sixty five years without much more excitement than some renovation in 1953. The bridge that you cross today along Center Street is the forth in a long line of bridges at that spot, it replaced the 3^rd center street bridge in 1983.

Salem became a two bridge city after construction started on the Marion Street Bridge in 1952.  Not long after the dust had settled, Salem began debating a 3^rd bridge.  And the discussions have been ongoing ever since.

This article was written and researched by Kylie Pine.  It appeared in the Statesman Journal Sunday, June 1, 2013.  It is reproduced here with citations.