PORTLAND — When the Interstate Bridge opened 100 years ago, thousands gathered to cross for the first time.
The Vancouver Daily Columbian called it the greatest day in the city’s history. The Oregonian called Feb. 14, 1917, “a day when dreams came true, a day of political fervor when governors and mayors talked and shook hands and mingled with crowds; bands played, cannons boomed, school was out, stores and offices closed.”
Oregonians rushing to grab a bite in Vancouver reportedly stripped the city’s restaurants clean within hours.
One hundred years later, as the bridge celebrates its birthday, revelers sang “Happy Birthday” and cut cake in a somewhat less dynamic celebration.
Still, the PDX Bridge Festival was able Saturday afternoon to mostly fill a ballroom at the Red Lion Hotel on the River in Jantzen Beach to mark the span’s centennial.
Katie Campbell, from the north side of the river, brought her four children to the event. Three of them — Lauryn, Ryland and Clara (6-year-old Bryce was too young to enter) — participated and took home prizes in the essay contest PDX Bridge Festival held to mark the occasion.
“We had a friend that sent us an email about the celebration. We saw a link to the contest on there,” she said. “During all the snow days, we were looking for things to do.”
Ryland, 14, placed third in the 14- to 18-year-old bracket and Clara, 10, placed second in the 9-13 range.
Lauryn, 16, won first place in the 14-18 bracket and $300, writing about 8-year-old Mary Ellen Kiggins, the girl who pulled the ribbon to mark the opening of the bridge. Kiggins was the Vancouver mayor’s daughter.
“I felt like it would be a good way to connect with the community and just our area,” she said.
Tony Lester, who’s on the group’s board, said the bridge-booster and history organization started with a centennial celebration for the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland in 2010, then the Broadway and Steel bridges in later years.
“They’re a unique part of Portland and Vancouver, and this region. If it wasn’t for our bridges, we’d be really isolated. I think people just like that,” he said.
As with most road work in that time, the bridge was built through a joint Clark and Multnomah county effort, before there was an federal interstate highway system or state transportation departments.
Lester said there was little interest from either state’s transportation departments, or the bordering counties, to join the organization in marking the occasion, which seemed odd, considering the bridge is showing its limits as a crossing.
“You would think they would use the opportunity to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the bridge, take the opportunity to point at that the bridge is old,” he aid. “Start thinking about it, folks. It isn’t going to last forever.”
Party guests enjoyed live music, rides in antique cars, vendors and presentations on the bridge and its history. Although the event was largely about the bridge’s history, there was little escaping its present, future and the interminable contemporary politics of local transportation.
Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt spoke, commending the efforts of the PDX Bridge Festival and local historical societies, commenting that it felt “a bit bittersweet” to celebrate the 100th birthday of a bridge that has served the area so well for only about 75 of those years.
Still, he said, “the bridge has been a very integral part of our communities and our lives. Our communities have grown together and prospered together because of the connectivity.”
