Interstate Bridge over the Columbia River - Columbia River Crossing, a $4 Billion Dollar New Bridge

Old movie of traffic on the Interstate Bridge crossing the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington:


The Interstate 5 Bridge and the Portland-Vancouver Ferry, circa 1920:












A streetcar crosses the original span of the Interstate Bridge:











Community members await the opening of the Interstate Bridge on February 14, 1917:










Circa 1965, Toll booths on Hayden Island. Tolls were collected to pay off the construction of the second bridge span until 1966, Mt. St. Helens is in the background:














The Interstate Bridge is the only remaining lift span on I-5. Picture of bridge lift looking south:






Watch the amazing "Gallopin' Gertie" November 7, 1940 film clip of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse:

Slender, elegant and graceful, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge stretched like a steel ribbon across Puget Sound in 1940. The third longest suspension span in the world opened on July 1st. Only four months later, the great span's short life ended in disaster. "Galloping Gertie," collapsed in a windstorm on November 7,1940.
The bridge became famous as "the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering history." Now, it's also "one of the world's largest man-made reefs." The sunken remains of Galloping Gertie were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 to protect her from salvagers.
The story of the failure of the 1940 Narrows Bridge and the success of the Current Narrows Bridge is a great American saga. When Galloping Gertie splashed into Puget Sound, it created ripple effects across the nation and around the world. The event changed forever how engineers design suspension bridges. Gertie's failure led to the safer suspension spans we use today.