Name That Bridge


TriMet is in the process of assembling a blue ribbon committee to consider names for the new Light Rail bridge (under construction) that is part of the Portland to Milwaukie project.

Let’s open it up for suggestions here.

[I realize there will be some sarcasm, but let’s have some serious suggestions in there too.]


67 responses to “Name That Bridge”

  1. McCall Bridge. I know Tom McCall wasn’t associated with light rail, but a transit bridge represents the sort of planning and conservation policies he championed. And he warrants a prominent memorial.

  2. In honor of the ongoing negotiations between TriMet and the union, I propose calling it….

    …Contract Bridge.

    (Let’s see you trump that!)

  3. Tom McCall already has a very prominent memorial… the entire downtown waterfront.

    It needs to be somebody who actually had something to do with MAX. I think it was Earl Blumenauer who suggested naming it after Greg Baldwin.

  4. Here’s my collection so far:

    “The Boondoggle Bridge™”
    “one bridge too many”
    “The bridge to bankruptcy”
    “Fiasco Pass”.
    “Unwanted”
    “Sam Adams’ Folly (One Of Many)”
    ” The Money Pit”
    “Bridge Über alles”
    “The Porkland Bridge”
    “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”
    “Tri-Metrosexual Bridge?”
    “Owa tashame itis”
    “Willamette Narrows. ”
    “Bridge to Nowhere”
    “White Elephant Way”

  5. I love it when My comments get flagged and end up in the Portland Transport Dumpster

    [Moderator: Just the moderation queue, not the bit bucket–the phrase “sexual” is sufficient to get it flagged. I’ll let it pass, given the nature of the rest of this thread, but do remember this is a family-friendly forum. — ES].

  6. All of our other Willamette bridges are place names, aren’t they? In fact, most are street names. The exception is the Marquam (who?) Bridge.

  7. The street name trend is certainly true, except for St. Johns and Sellwood, which are named for the communities they provide access to.

    The street name for this bridge would have it be the Caruthers Bridge — not the most charming name, but would it work? Alternatively, it lines up pretty well with Division Street, though the Division Bridge sounds like some kind of math problem…

    If not, then the place names it connects aren’t so charming — South Waterfront and, uh… south central eastside industrial district… so, that’s pretty much out.

    Which does leave us with naming it for a prominent individual… and there are plenty of good options there.

  8. Green
    Future
    Link
    Transport

    Most deserving is Blumenauer. Bit it’s long and hard to spell so I vote “Earl”.

  9. The street name for this bridge would have it be the Caruthers Bridge

    Only on the east side. On the west side it lines up with Porter Street, which is also a delicious beer. That’s got my vote.

  10. The street name trend is certainly true, except for St. Johns and Sellwood, which are named for the communities they provide access to.

    The street name for this bridge would have it be the Caruthers Bridge — not the most charming name, but would it work? Alternatively, it lines up pretty well with Division Street, though the Division Bridge sounds like some kind of math problem…

    If not, then the place names it connects aren’t so charming — South Waterfront and, uh… south central eastside industrial district… so, that’s pretty much out.

    Which does leave us with naming it for a prominent individual… and there are plenty of good options there.

  11. It doesn’t flow and is frankly pathetic, but I haven’t been able to get past the “no car; others ok” bridge. (Sorry, Garlynn)

    If it has to be named for a person it should be Mark Hatfield even though he wasn’t directly involved with MLR. As the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee for years, he was king of pork purveyors. Yeah, there are more than a few things named for him already.

  12. Oops, apologies for double posting… *%&^%& browser..

    I agree with Grant, Porter has a nice ring to it…

  13. If not, then the place names it connects aren’t so charming — South Waterfront and, uh… south central eastside industrial district… so, that’s pretty much out.

    Well, the MAX line on the east side does head into Brooklyn…

  14. I like the “Porkland Bridge” or the “Cars are Evil Bridge”.

    But seriously, anything but a politician’s name; that goes for Dems or Reps.

    How about the “Mel Brown Bridge” or “Curtis Salgado Bridge”?

  15. Curtis Salgado Bridge

    My preference is not to name things after people who are still alive, and the original Blues Brother is still kickin’, last I checked.

  16. I cast my vote with the naming the bridge after a street or place. That is far more useful than naming after a person most people don’t know and will likely forget about in less than a generation. Besides, things named after people these days are so long. No one ever calls MLK “King Street,” yet we have Washington instead of George Washington street.

    Caruthers is all right, but I do like Porter better. On the other hand, Division, while a somewhat unwieldy name, should get a fair hearing. We have a whole major street named after it, and no one’s ever complained about the name. It’s also a major street, so people know it. Examples include the Hawthorne bridge, the Morrison bridge, the Burnside Bridge, and the Broadway bridge. How Steel fits in, I don’t know.

    On the whole, Division makes the most sense, so I’ll vote for that one. Porter and Caruthers are the first and second runners-up.

  17. The naming of bridges after streets makes the most sense to help cars and their drivers figure out where they will be going when navigating the city. That issue is not relevant here as cars are banned and a super-majority of the use will be by bus, light rail, and streetcar.

    With regard to naming it after a person, the exact point of doing so is to help that person’s name live on for a while so they are not completely forgotten by the next generation. As an example, taking the time to know who Banfield or Glenn Jackson were is a worthwhile endeavor for some.

    There is always the generic Cascadia Bridge.

    James DePriest would be a good one in my view. But again, ANYTHING but a politician; particularly a living one.

  18. I always find it amusing that they named SW Roy Rogers Road, between Sherwood and Beaverton, after a Washington County politician (one still very much alive and active in politics). Of course, people all think the road is named after the cowboy…

  19. I like Porter Street Bridge, although google seems to have already determined that it is the caruthers bridge… Perhaps we should call it the Spinal Tap bridge as this one will take our bridge count to 11.

    Bjorn

  20. Porter Bridge is my vote. Can even have a tie with a local brewery on opening day, everybody gets a free Porter ale.

  21. Wait, you mean they care what people think it should be called?

    Maybe they should have listened to the voters when they said NO to this project 20 years ago (or any other light rail project past the first one).

  22. How about this, horizon bridge. The bridge that opened up new transit horizons for south east portland.

    No politicians there. But if we have to ,name after sam, he’s an alright guy.

  23. Anthony: which voters? Light rail has passed in the jurisdictions it serves. When people in Klamath Falls vote against a MAX line in Portland, is that really the way to judge public support?

    Porter sounds good.

    I also like Brooklyn. Portland’s Brooklyn Bridge would be awesome. Cue the Beastie Boys…

    How about “Brooklyn Division”?

  24. Since the MAX line goes to Milwaukie, we could name the bridge after the county it goes to: Clackamas Bridge. This might remind the Clackastanis that their taxes helped pay for it, and it would rile the anti-Portland faction there no end.

  25. valkraider:

    Light rail is always voted down when put up for a vote (except for the first line). Thats why the geniuses at the Portland/TriMet/Metro mafia took voting out of the equation. Thats why TriMet sued Clackamas county when voters decided they wanted a say. Most of the ‘public support’ for light rail rail comes from Delphi meetings where support for a project is manufactured with tricky group psychology techniques.

  26. I guess the real question is; what will people 20 years from now call it, after fixed route transit has been abandoned for fast, cheap, and efficient autonomous taxis. TriMet will be long gone, but we will still be paying the credit card bill on this monstrosity.

  27. @Anthony I’m actually a fan of PRV especially at night when tri met has deemed it a good idea to basically turn off our transit service, but I don’t think that PRV is ever going to be able to rival max for operating cost or speed during rush hour. We either would have to have a ton of vehicles sitting idle outside of rush hour or long waits to get a vehicle, not to mention that if everyone currently riding the max transitions to what is basically a SOV the traffic jams that will occur would be crazy.

  28. I guess the real question is; what will people 20 years from now call it, after fixed route transit has been abandoned for fast, cheap, and efficient autonomous taxis. TriMet will be long gone, but we will still be paying the credit card bill on this monstrosity.

    ~~~>When it comes to playing with tax payers money the ‘leaders’ show not even the miniscule of restraint.
    Why should they?
    They all get big fat pensions even if they get fired and the money that is spent is not theirs so why would they care.

    They don’t give a hoot about the future, they’ve set it up so they get well taken care of. Do you see the phony ‘sequester’ affecting any of the upper class, including the greedy legislators, nope.

    However the future is very bleak, for all the middle, working , dependent classes.

    I know GREECE is not on the forefront of peoples minds, but that is exactly where we are heading, and we are heading there in break neck speed.

    The propaganda has people deadened, by the time they wake up it will be too late.

  29. Four light rail votes in Oregon. First one (Westside in 1990) passed 80-20. Second one (South-North in 1994) passed 60-40. Third one (South-North state funding in 1996) was a state-wide vote that passed in the Tri-Met service area, but failed because of opposition in the rest of the state. Fourth one (shorter line, Portland to Clackamas via Milwaukie in 1998) failed in the Tri-Met service area by a narrow 48-52 margin. Winning three out of four votes among the relevant population and losing one narrowly doesn’t exactly strike me as “always voted down” or reflecting a lack of public support.

    Yeah, I know light-rail opponents like to pretend it’s unpopular, but the history doesn’t support that.

    Oh, and the fleet of autonomous taxis that you expect will displace light rail? Light rail will be autonomous well before the taxis are. With the biggest operating cost (operator salaries) gone and LRT connecting major population and business clusters with lots of traffic between them, MAX will remain competitive for quite some time to come.

  30. Douglas K. –

    “In a perfect world” we really would expect self-operating LRV’s to be the norm before robotaxis and autonomous Zip cars. In fact, the technological glitches reported on current state-of-the-art AV’s generally seem to be irrelevant when applied to vehicles restricted to fixed guideways: think precip obscuring lane markings, dealing with flaggers and detours, etc.

    Two problems:

    1. There appear to be less than 3,000 LRV’s of all types in North America. So development costs would be pretty high per vehicle. There could be a lot of piggybacking on rubber tire av research, but that implies everything becoming available at about the same time.

    2. More hidebound bureaucracies are involved with transit. Privately operated robotaxi & other shared AV firms should be ready to go a lot sooner than transit agencies once state legislatures and local governments are on board.
    In fact, it’s reasonable to assume that such companies will be among the early adopters. It will be interesting to see how the relative clout of the vested interests plays out.

    Long term – Operator cost is only about 1/4 of LR ops costs (vs. maybe 60% or so of bus ops.) As ridership goes down, LR fixed costs – particularly railway maintenance – will increase as both a proportion of ops and in actual cents per boarding ride. Some LR lines could become too expensive to operate. The Red Line is particularly vulnerable because it doesn’t have its own heavy peak traffic and provides a pretty slow trip to the airport.

  31. How about the Mel Blanc Bridge.

    (He’s the classic voice artist best known as Bugs Bunny.)

    He grew up in what was once called South Portland– now called the 405 freeway.

    Neither a politician nor a street. Just a Portland son most people forget got his start right here. Let’s honor a great artist for once.

  32. Could TriMet sell the naming rights, and use the money to restore a couple of frequencies thinned by budget cuts?

  33. Of topic, but since it came up: Let’s face it, we all knew that Nike was always going to expand in Washington County, right? The SoWa thing was just a ploy to keep WashCo on its toes.

  34. I’d like to think of that were truly the case, Nike couldn’t get nearly the attention or tax incentives that it did. However, it did seem like an overwhelming offer would have been needed to budge them

  35. Moderator’s note: to whomever is posting as “jim karlock’s dad” (and using a fictitious e-mail address in the process) we assume you are not actually Jim’s dad (correct us if we’re wrong about that). We consider your use of this handle to be a “personally directed comment” toward Jim and therefore outside our rules. Please use a handle that doesn’t violate our terms for future comments. Otherwise your comments will be blocked. Thanks.

    Anthony,
    In twenty years, LRT will be a vital part of a transport system that allows Portland Metro to remain competitive in a global world. You and your ornery octagenarian friends may not like the 21st century but its here.

    Al,
    the only places in the US that will look like Greece in twenty years are the backwards backwaters that refuse to acknowledge a future reality of deep budget cuts, high taxes and global competition for workforces, employers and capital. The teabagger outposts like the south aren’t going to last once the influx of federally apportioned dollars from the tri-state area and California cease.

  36. I would not support Division (almost an oxymoron there) as auto drivers on Division Street will not be able to drive across the bridge.

    I think TriMet had Caruthers Crossing as the choice. That has a nice ring to it.

    Brad

  37. I like Division Bridge because it IS an oxymoron. It also has a very diplomatic ring to it. And you will see it as you’re driving down Division, even if you can’t actually drive across.

  38. Put that way, I agree with calling it “Division Street Bridge”, too. There is certainly a divide between the vehicles which can use it and those which cannot. (note that I said “vehicles”, not “people”).

  39. In the 70’s we worked to kill a big new freeway bridge across the Bay into SF…called “The Southern Crossing.” Might work here. OTOH, maybe this Cruthers guy was a worthy dude.

  40. We’d better watch out using “Division Street Bridge”. Since zero cars will be crossing it, so far as the auto community is concerned it will be infinitely expensive. Division by zero is undefined.

  41. That dude, Elizabeth Caruthers, already has a park named after her in SoWa.

    And not Division “Street” Bridge. It loses its ironic value. Plus Division St doesn’t actually cross it, and none of our other bridges (Hawthorne, Burnside, Morrison, Broadway) use “Street” or “Avenue” in their names. Just Division Bridge.

  42. Caruthers Crossing (something someone) Bridge.
    Its engineering is exceedingly excellent therefore deserving some worthy memorable namesake. Over the years, so many people have participated in the development of the MAX LRT system, and the Caruthers Crossing project so much like icing on the cake, a pinnacle of engineering, the new bridge will be testament to a movement more than to a personal achievement.

    I’m doing a study of replacing the Marquam Bridge (due for replacement in 50? years). A quieter single-deck arrangement that improves riverfront quality and helps accellerate major development along the streetcar Central Loop. It’ll be on the downriver side, near the height of the current lower deck and will only be Hwy 84 access, not I-5. What?

  43. When they replace the Marquam, ideally it would just be a local-access bridge that reconnects the grid of South Waterfront and the central eastside. Great cities do not have freeways running through prime waterfront real estate downtown.

    If they do decide they need a freeway, it better be burried, with a tunnel under the river.

  44. We don’t even need to demolish or replace the Marquam. Just shut down the eastbank freeway, redesignate the Stadium Freeway and Fremont Bridge as I-5, and use the Marquam Bridge (reduced to three lanes) as access to I-5 from McLoughlin/MLK/Grand and the CEID. It would be a boon for the industrial district — they’d have immediate access to I-5 southbound. Turn the I-5 segment into a two-lane street with a signaled interchange at the east end of the Morrison Bridge and single-lane ramps to I-84 at the north end. And then expand the Eastbank Esplanade while creating more space for waterfront development.

    Portland really has no need for a beltway around downtown.

  45. Well… This idea for the I-5 eastbank freeway incorporates a Morrison/Belmont bridgehead interchange (4 stoplights). Jim Howell proposed such an interchange though one block east.

    Northbound exit to Water Ave remains alongside an exit to the bridgehead interchange for access to downtown and eastside. New northbound entrances from the interchange create access to I-5 and Hwy 84. A southbound entrance from the interchange creates access to I-5 South. From the Rose Quarter, I-5 southbound exits to the interchange create access to downtown and eastside. As a last resort, motorists can exit and immediately re-enter the highway.

    The I-5 ramp nearest the floating walkway is removed. The adjacent segment of I-5 remains. The flyover ramp from downtown to I-5/84 is removed. The flyover ramp from southbound I-5 to the eastside remains. Noisy I-5 near Morrison is narrowed away from the esplanade.

    As I understand it, the Marquam has to come down one day, therefore some replacement will be necessary. This design assumes future traffic can be managed without the I-5 eastbank freeway. A freeway tunnel would not function as fully and is impractical.

  46. I brought up the subject the Marquam bridge replacement because of its proximity to the new Milwaukie MAX bridge. Development potential in SoWa and along the Central Loop Streetcar is enhanced by how the Marquam bridge is replaced. I also believe single-deck bridge studies offer lessons applicable to the CRC project, which should also be single-deck, obviously.

  47. Boston Bridge, after our would-be name if the coin toss had worked out differently. Or we could do a coin toss every year to determine if its named Boston or Portland…Bridge.

  48. I would name it Paboi Bridge, simply stands for ” Put a bird on it”.
    The bridge has so many wires which I assume will be a good resting spot for so many birds.

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