The Ross of Ross Island

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In the Willamette River about two miles south of downtown Portland is a place where the river widens to about 4/5ths of a mile across, and in this widening is a bit of land that looks like a lobster's claw. 

It is what remains of two islands that were mined TF out over a period of years by the Ross Island Sand and Gravel Company, an era which finally ended about five years ago. This horseshoe, the left half of it, is what remains of Ross Island, named for an early colonial settler.

At the east end of its namesake bridge, there is a plaque installed that tells you about him. 

The island on the left, Hardtack Island, could be named because its position might cause boats passing the islands on the east to turn really decisively, but I prefer to imaging that Sherry Ross liked hardtack a lot. 

Hey, he got to and from his property by boat. It could have happened!

Signs to Wonders

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Well, maybe not stupendous wonders. But they're the background of my life, these place names. I find poetry in the way they scan.

This sign gantry surmounts the east end of the Ross Island Bridge. a quick offramp puts you on the road to Oregon City and eventually Salem, and the straight way puts you on the road to Wy'east. This would have been near the beginning of what we would have called the Mount Hood Freeway, except that Neil Goldschmidt and the freeway revolt happened and we have MAX and whatnot now.

Downtown Portland From The Ross Island Bridge, Then and Now

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In this posting on the 17th I shared a photo I took in April 2010 of downtown Portland from the vantage point of the east end of the Ross Island Bridge, and it struck me how amazing it was to see it without the Tilikum Crossing Bridge there. I figured it was past time to get an updated picture of this, to document the change.

This has been done. And here is the result.

This day it was warm, in the upper 60s, and the high overcast was nacre-like, in contrast to the gray low-overcast of the 2010 pic. It diffused the light a great deal and I was not able to get contrast on many of the buildings that I wanted. But the difference is pretty striking, I think.

I mean, that new bridge there. 

In a book very close to my heart, Ursula K LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven, the main character, George Orr is described as living in a Portland that, instead of going the way we did, doubled and tripled down on the growth, had become a moribund city of millions with subways and innumerable bridges across the Willamette. We, as I said, didn't go quite that way, but the multiplying ways to get across the river make me think of the picture of the Portland-yet-to-come that she drew. 

I mean, what a difference 11 years makes. This was just in 11 years, there seems to have been more change and more change more faster than in the thirty years previous. Nearly asymptotic, really.

Westbound on the Ross Island Bridge.

3724Returning to the Ross Island Bridge, I give you the look out our car's front window as we proceed toward the west side of the Willamette.

Ahead of this, the road devolves into a number of ramps connecting to streets leading into downtown (S Kelly Avenue, SW Naito Parkway northbound, SW Arthur leading to SW 4th) and to the great Southwest (SW Naito Parkway southbound to Barbur Blvd). These are very charming old ramps and, judging by the curve radii and the tightness of the roadways, were clearly designed for much slower traffic. But, we deal.

Off to the left, if you could look, are the condo towers of South Waterfront ... and my history here goes back far enough that I knew a time when none of them were there. Off to the right, views of downtown that are, unfortunately, obscured by the safety railings.

Straight ahead, tho ...

... th e eastern face of Portland's posh West Hills. The buildings most in evidence surmount a massif known as Marquam Hill, our medical mountain, our "Pill Hill". Not only is there the massive research joint known as OHSU, but there's also the Doernbecher's Children's Hospital, a Shriners' Hospital, and a VA Medical Center.

If I caught a case of Andromeda Strain, that's where I'd want to be. You're never more than one insurance plan away from any doctor.

The cables up the hill are the OHSU tram, of course, another thing I knew Portland before it had. It's a fun ride, surprisingly low-key as a tourist attraction, and connects the OHSU buildings down by the river with the ones up on the hill.

And, of course, the lush green. Surfeit of trees? This is Portland. We haz dem.

The Ross Island Bridge From Terwilliger Blvd

3722The Ross Island Bridge the span that carries US Hwy 26 across the Willamette and from Southwest Portland (Well, it starts in South, now) to Southeast Portland. For a time in the 90s, me and the Brown Eyed Girl lived in a 4-plex down SE 8th Avenue in the Brooklyn section of town and coming home from work over the bridge (and, sometimes, going to work) I got to see a lot of Wy'east in morning and evening light. That, indeed, was its own reward.

The foliage on the parkway provides its own framing. That tower on the right there is for the OHSU Tram. It opened in 1926 and was named for nearby Ross Island, who itself was named for the early Portlander who had a donation land claim on that island, Sherry Ross. It is a cantilever deck truss bridge, supposedly quite rare in Oregon.

Interesting Fun Fact!: Ross Island Bridge actually crosses the river just north of the island and doesn't go to the island itself. As a youth I love bridges and islands and islands that have bridges go to them, so when I finally figured out that the Ross Island Bridge doesn't actually go there, I harbored a bitter petty existential resentment that endures to this very day.