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. Well, strictly speaking, it’s being replaced. This past month the Sellwood Bridge Project finally broke ground, and if everything goes according to plan, Bridgetown will have a new river span in 2015.

While most people probably won’t miss it due to the less-than-stellar safety ratings that it’s received, seeing a substantial hunk of the landscape get replaced is not without a certain mournfulness. Given the recent news of its doom, (and my general fondness for bridges) here are a few fun facts about Portland’s most truss-filled tattoo subject.

1. It replaced a ferry! Prior to the Sellwood, folks crossed the Willamette on a ferry called the John F. Caples. The steam-powered vessel took an average of 582 vehicles and 482 pedestrians across the river every day. The traffic was too much for a lone steamship to bear, though, hence the bridge. Nowadays, the two-lane bridge is not enough for its current traffic, so the current Sellwood will be going the way of the steamship.

2. It was Portland’s first fixed-span bridge! In 1925 the truss bridge was the first river crosser in Portland to not have a draw or swing span. The very first bridge in Portland was a wooden toll bridge roughly where the Morrison is today, and it was a hand-cranked swing-span bridge. The Hawthorne and Steel are both lift bridges. The Sellwood, though, was the first wholly immovable bridge in the city.

3. It was built for $541,637.19! That’s $6,678,393.75 in today’s money. All things considered, that’s actually pretty cheap for a bridge. The current project is several times that, with a current estimated cost of $268 million.

4. It’s been extensively repaired before! In 1960 the foundation of the bridge had settled considerably, and cracked concrete and askew columns had to be repaired so the bridge didn’t collapse. The foundation settling wasn’t unusual for the area, given the low, wet nature of the land in the area.

5. The handrail was not in the original design! The concrete, Gothic-style handrails on each side of the bridge are one of the few aesthetic flourishes on what is largely an unadorned, functional structure. The original design, though, only featured a metal guardrail.

6. It’s been the recipient of a TIGER grant! TIGER stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery. The grant program was started in 2009 as part of the stimulus package and is actually non-forced, as far as clever acronyms go. The replacement project .

7. It has a 3.5 star rating on Yelp! . The Sellwood Bridge gets a fair amount of bad reviews, but one five-star review reads 鈥淗ang in there buddy. 聽Don’t let the haters get you down. 聽Please let these 5 beautiful stars serve as encouragement to stay on the up and up.鈥�

All things considered, though, it is good that the old thing is getting replaced. As much as a nostalgia-addled history buff such as myself might mourn the passing of substantial piece of landscape, a newer, better bridge is definitely the way to go. Of particular interest is that not only will the replacement bridge be safer for heavy vehicles, but .

The transit advocate and development enthusiast in me can’t help but be happy for the project. This is good news, all around, and I’ll probably be going “woo” at the dedication ceremony in 2015. But, for gooey reasons of historical nostalgia, I’ll miss the old thing, cracks and all.

by SoulRider.222 via Flickr