Marquam Bridge 2.88

The Marquam Bridge is a double-deck, steel-truss cantilever bridge that carries Interstate 5 traffic across the Willamette River south of downtown Portland, Oregon. It is the busiest bridge in Oregon, carrying 135,900 vehicles a day as of 2008. The upper deck carries northbound traffic; the lower deck carries southbound traffic.The bridge was designed and built by the Oregon Department of Transportation at a cost of $14 million. The lower southbound deck was opened on October 4, 1966, and the upper northbound deck on October 18, 1966. The main span of the bridge is 440ft long and the two side spans are 301ft each. The vertical clearance of the lower deck is 130ft and the upper deck is 20ft above the lower. The bridge is named after Philip Marquam, a state legislator and Multnomah County judge, who owned much of Marquam Hill where Oregon Health & Science University and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center now stand. At the eastern end of the bridge, on the lower deck, is a ramp stub which was intended to connect to the cancelled Mount Hood Freeway. As it has great importance, the Marquam was the first Portland bridge to undergo a seismic retrofit in 1995.