Bridge of the Gods, over the Columbia River
The Bridge of the Gods is a steel truss cantilever bridge that
spans the Columbia River between Cascade Locks, Oregon and
Washington state near Stevenson.
The bridge was built by the Wauna Toll Bridge Company of Walla
Walla, Washington and opened in 1926 as a 1,127 ft bridge. The
higher river levels resulting from the construction of the
Bonneville Dam required the bridge to be further elevated and
extended to its current length of 1,856 ft.
The bridge is named after a famous geologic event also known
as Bridge of the Gods.
The original Bridge of the Gods was created by the Bonneville
Slide, which dammed the Columbia River in the modern-day
Pacific Northwest of the United States in
the eighteenth century. It was a landslide across the Columbia 200
feet high.
It has been verified geologically, and there are native legends
of it.
Photo 516, Sept 2006