Oregon Slough Railroad Bridge | |
|---|---|
 The bridge's swing-span section in 2011 | |
| Coordinates | 45°36′51″N 122°42′08″W / 45.61425°N 122.702306°W |
| Carries | 2 railroad tracks |
| Crosses | North Portland Harbor (Oregon Slough) |
| Locale | Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Other name(s) | BNSF Railway Bridge 8.8 |
| Owner | BNSF Railway |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Swing bridge, Pratt truss |
| Total length | 1,524 feet (465 m) (1,467 ft plus a 57-ft approach viaduct at the south end, over Marine Drive)[1] |
| Longest span | 334 feet (102 m)[1] |
| No. of spans | eight |
| History | |
| Designer | Ralph Modjeski |
| Opened | 1908 |
| Location | |
 | |
The Oregon Slough Railroad Bridge,[2] also known as the BNSF Railway Bridge 8.8,[3] is a swing-span, through truss bridge in Portland, Oregon, United States. Currently owned and operated by BNSF Railway,[3] it crosses an anabranch of the Columbia River known as North Portland Harbor and historically as the Oregon Slough. The bridge's northern end is on Hayden Island, which, along with Tomahawk Island, forms the north shore of the channel. Completed in 1908, the two-track bridge is one of only two swing bridges surviving in Portland, which once had several bridges of that type, both for road and rail traffic.[3] The only other remaining swing bridge in the Portland area is another rail-only bridge on the same line, BNSF's nearby Bridge 9.6, spanning the Columbia River.[3]
The bridge is used regularly by freight trains of both BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad, as well as by Amtrak passenger trains on routes connecting Portland with Seattle and with Chicago via Spokane, Washington. The 8.8 in the name is the distance, in miles, from Portland's Union Station, the same as for Bridge 5.1 (across the Willamette River) and Bridge 9.6 on the same line.[3]
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
last boltwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Bottenberg, Ray (2007). Bridges of Portland. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 55–64. ISBN 978-0-7385-4876-0.
- ^ a b c d e Wood Wortman, Sharon; Wortman, Ed (2006). The Portland Bridge Book (3rd ed.). Urban Adventure Press. pp. 5, 36, 119–120, 177. ISBN 0-9787365-1-6.