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The Abernethy Bridge, viewed from the south
The Abernethy Bridge is a steel plate and box girder bridge that spans the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn, Oregon. It is also known as the Oregon City Freeway Bridge and the I-205 Bridge as it carries Interstate 205.
The bridge was open on May 3, 1970 at a cost of $15.9 million. An $8 million seismic retrofit began in 1999 and was completed in 2002.
The bridge structure contains 15 spans and 60 girders. The total length is 2,727 ft (831 m) and the vertical clearance at low river levels is 85 ft (26 m). The longest span is 430 ft (131m) and is sandwiched by two 300 ft (91 m) spans. The bridge carries six lanes of traffic (3 in each direction--two through lanes, and one merging lane). Interchanges are located at each end of the bridge--on the western end (in West Linn) is an interchange with Oregon Route 43; on the eastern end (in Oregon City) is an interchange with OR 99E. The bridge is somewhat unusual in that its western approach is located on a bluff overlooking the river, whereas the eastern end is located in a lowland just south of the confluence of the Willamette and Clackamas rivers; as a result, westbound traffic on I-205 travels uphill the entire length of the bridge, and continues uphill for another half-mile before the freeway summits and heads back downhill, into the lower Tualatin River basin.
The bridge was named for George Abernethy who was the provisional governor of the Oregon Territory and later an Oregon City businessman. In 2000 the average traffic was 98,100 vehicles per day.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Wood, Sharon. The Portland Bridge Book. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 2001. ISBN 0-87595-211-9.
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