Sometimes also referred to as the “Willamette Bridge,” as it was the first span constructed across the river in Portland (a short-lived bridge in Salem was the very first bridge across the Willamette, opening some four months before the Morrison Street structure).

The bridge was proposed as early as 1880, when the Willamette Iron Bridge Company was first incorporated to bring about its construction. However, a bitter and protracted legal struggle brought about by citizens concerned about their riparian rights and the navigability of the river delayed its construction for a number of years—it finally opened on April 9, 1887, with horse-drawn streetcars first crossing it on March 29, 1888. Design and engineering was performed by C. F. Swigert and the Pacific Bridge Company.

The bridge was originally operated as a private toll bridge, with rates for the one-way-only toll from Portland to East Portland set by the Multnomah County Court as follows [Source: Morning Oregonian, Friday March 25, 1887]:

Electric streetcars began crossing the bridge in September 1890 when the Richmond and Woodstock car lines commenced operations, and horse-cars were phased out rapidly after that.

The bridge was purchased by the City of Portland in 1895 for $150,000, and became a free bridge—joining the Madison-street and Burnside-street bridges—on July 4, 1895. The nearby Stark-street ferry, which had also been purchased by the city and made free, was shut down shortly thereafter, no longer deemed useful or necessary.

With a superstructure built mainly of wood (only the swing span’s truss was made of wrought iron), the bridge was never going to last long in the Pacific Northwest’s damp climate—record-breaking floods in 1890 and 1894 certainly didn’t help—and plans for a more permanent replacement began to be drawn as early as 1902.

Construction of the new bridge was not without controversy. The construction company moved to stop pedestrian traffic across the bridge and institute a shuttle streetcar service in its place as early as February 1904. The Portland city council asked the City & Suburban Railway Company to charge a reduced rate of 2 cents (with no transfer allowed) for these shuttle trips, and the company acceded. However, citizens—who were by now accustomed to free passage across the bridge—were outraged by both the early closure and the need to pay any fare at all. Pedestrians and other vehicles were allowed to continue crossing the bridge at their own risk until April 17, when all such traffic was finally banned. Negotiations continued regarding the fare for the shuttle cars: some wanted free transfers, others suggested a penny fare, neither of which were appealing to the City & Suburban, who were seen as well within the rights granted by their franchise to charge a full 5-cent fare for the trip. Finally, the original 2-cent fare was agreed to on April 27, 1904—a lot of extra effort to get the same result!

This special shuttle service operated alongside the other City & Suburban streetcar services that crossed the bridge at that time: the Brooklyn, Montavilla, Mount Tabor, Richmond, Sunnyside and Woodstock lines, which continued to provide mostly-uninterrupted service to the West Side until the old bridge was permanently closed so that its draw span could be demolished in October 1904. After that time, all the City & Suburban cars that had crossed the old bridge were rerouted north up Grand avenue to Burnside street, where passengers transferred to Portland Railway Company cars across the Burnside Bridge until the new bridge opened in January 1905.

Lines Served

• Brooklyn (1902–1927)
• East Fifth-street (1888–1892*)
• Irvington (1890–1914, 1933–1940)
• Montavilla (1892–1948)
• Morrison Bridge (1888–1890)
• Mount Tabor (1889–1948)
• Richmond (1890–1936)
• Sunnyside (1888–1933*)
• Woodstock (1890–1936)