Portland at Night: Marquam Bridge

Portland at Night: Marquam Bridge
Originally uploaded by alicethelma

Last month I wrote a post about the Steel Bridge and I have decided to feature one Portland bridge per month (and quite possibly other bridges around the world). This month I present to you the Marquam Bridge, the busiest bridge in Oregon carrying I5 and over 135,000 vehicles per day. I never really appreciated the Marquam Bridge until I stood directly underneath it at OMSI. What a behemoth – a real workhorse of a bridge.

I love this quote by former mayor Vera Katz in her state of the city address in 2001: “It’s like having the Berlin Wall dividing east and west, with all the subtle charm of the Daytona 500 smack dab in the middle of our city.”


The Marquam Bridge offers by far the best view of the city but it can be quite distracting if you’re the driver. However if are lucky enough to be driven across it, from west to east, you’ll be treated to a stunning panorama (the upper deck carries northbound traffic and the lower deck, southbound). Unlike the Fremont Bridge which is closed to traffic during the annual Bridge Pedal, the Marquam is never closed to traffic. At least not to my knowledge. You might know something that I don’t.