On our next to last day in town, I finally get around to something I planned on even before arriving here two months ago - a hike up to the Wildwood Trail to test out the new footbridge spanning busy, dangerous Burnside Street.
Barbara Walker Crossing isn’t really that new any more - the grand opening was in October, 2019 - but it’s new to us. We could have gone up to see it in either of our brief stays here last year, but I’d forgotten it was even something to watch out for then. And this year, even after I knew it had been completed I wasn’t sure we’d be able to walk across it because it was badly damaged in a January snowstorm and wasn’t expected to reopen until sometime this month.
It’s been reopened for a week or two now, long enough that Rocky has been up there at least twice now and has reported back how wonderful it is. Incorrigible procrastinator that I am though, I almost wait too long and don’t make it out the door and up that way until today. The bridge is the main event for the day, but as long as I’m out and have a camera in my pocket I stop at a few spots along the way.
I’ve been carping about the state of Portland’s streets ever since we returned to town, but have resisted photographing what we’re all experiencing now in one way or another. This fairly tidy line-up is a pretty antiseptic look - a row of about a dozen tents that have claimed the sidewalk for an entire block east of I-405.
Here’s a new addition to the neighborhood I’m excited to see - a pedestrian bridge crossing I-405 on Flanders, helping connect the Pearl and the NW district. There are also spans one block on either side, but they both cross hazardous freeway on and off ramps that make them inferior walking and cycling routes.
Scott AndersonTo Bill ShaneyfeltHoof fungus! That’s descriptive enough. I’ve never tried to classify these, but I think I could remember this one. Reply to this comment 3 years ago
The bridge, once I finally get there, is well worth the wait. It’s a beautiful structure with a unique design: a colorful welded steel structure meant to suggest sword ferns and vine maples. Looking down at the nonstop traffic racing up and down Burnside, I’m reminded of how unnerving it was to race across its three lanes of sight-impeded traffic if you wanted to cross from one side to the other to continue the hike. Thinking back, I think I only did this twice. It was enough of a barrier that I would only walk on one side of the Wildwood Trail or the other.
This article from the website of the bridge designer, Ed Carpenter, gives much more detail and background on this beautiful structure.
I’m particularly pleased with this photo of a clematis on Hermosa. It was a windy day, and it took about a dozen shots until I captured a moment when the blossom was still, fairly sunlit and fully open.
