The importance of military aviation in World War I pushed European builders to improve their airplanes. “Crossing the Columbia River” Spruce Production Division, World War I “Columbia River Interstate Bridge is completed in January 1917” ![]() Efforts in recent years to replace the structure with a modern bridge have not yet been successful. Today, the 1917 bridge still carries the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 and the 1958 bridge carries southbound traffic. Part of the 1917 bridge had to be reconstructed to match the arch on the new bridge. The original bridge was flat, but in 1956 a second bridge was added next to the first, this time with an arch to allow larger ships to pass without opening its lift span. It cost about $1.7 million, and was paid for by a five-cent toll until 1929. ![]() On February 14, 1917, the bridge opened for traffic, which included a streetcar track. Finally, Clark County and Multnomah County, Oregon, worked out a plan and construction started in March 1915. Discussions about building a bridge began in 1868 and continued for years but didn't result in action. Weather and river levels affected ferry service and capacity was limited. “Pearson Field: Washington's Pioneer Airport” Interstate Bridge OpensĪs Vancouver and Portland grew in the 19th century, the only way to travel across the Columbia River was by ferryboat. “Historical Overview of Pearson Airfield,” Hardesty, Von, Unpublished manuscript, 1992. “American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Historic Aerospace Site: Pearson Field” Later that summer a demonstration “Aeroplane Mail Service” carried 5,000 letters from Portland to Vancouver. On June 11, 1912, during the Portland Rose Festival, he took off from a platform built on the roof of Portland’s Multnomah Hotel as 50,000 people watched, and landed at the Barracks. Silas Christofferson crashed a plane later that month, but made successful flights in May 1912. The next year the Army designated the field as an “aviation camp.” On June 15, 1911, Charles “Fred” Walsh took off in his Curtiss biplane to make the first airplane flight over the city. The large open fields between the Barracks and the river, where Hudson’s Bay Company farmed and the Army played polo, were already attracting aviation enthusiasts. The Vancouver Barracks commander, General Marion Miles, attended a Portland demonstration given by the Curtiss Flying Team in March 1910. Hidden and other Vancouver businessmen have incorporated the Vancouver, Yakima & Klickitat Railroad” Early Aviation Pioneers in Vancouver “Railroading in Vancouver and Southwest Washington” SP&S located its principal maintenance facility here and was one of the city’s largest employers for most of the 20th century. Suddenly Vancouver was the junction of two major rail lines. It was completed between Pasco and Vancouver in March 1908, and the bridge to the Oregon side opened in November. The NP extended its line from Kalama to Vancouver and in October 1905, construction of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway’s “North Bank Road” began. Hill wanted his companies, Great Northern (GN) and Northern Pacific (NP), to have better access to Oregon through Vancouver. By the first years of the 20th century, railroad tycoon James J. ![]() In 1887, local businessmen started the Vancouver, Klickitat and Yakima Railroad but the national economic collapse in 1893 stopped that project. Another railroad was built through the Columbia River Gorge, but on the south bank. Starting in the 1870s, trains from Seattle to Portland crossed the Columbia River on a ferryboat at Kalama, 30 miles downstream. “Beachey, Lincoln “ Spokane, Portland and Seattle RailwayĮarly regional railroads bypassed Vancouver. “Pearson Field, Pioneering Aviation in Vancouver and Portland,” Alley, Bill, Arcadia Publishing, 2006, “Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Pilot” magazine May 2014
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