The New Crooked River Gorge Bridge  

As a kid, whenever my family and I were traveling on Highway 97 headed North from Redmond, we always anticipated crossing the Crooked River Gorge. What a spectacular and scary canyon it was, I thought. It always made me a little nervous and I could not keep the thought from entering my mind of it possibly giving way as we made our way across!

Located approximately three miles north of Terrebonne, the gorge is spanned by a two-lane bridge that is part of a major highway connecting Washington, Oregon and California. The bridge was completed in 1926 and today it still stands allowing approximately 10,000 cars to cross it daily. West of the bridge is the Oregon Trunk Railroad bridge, currently known as the Burlington Northern bridge. Both bridges were built in a steel deck arch form.

With the amount of wear and tear the bridge is receiving, due to the amount of traffic, has made it functionally obsolete and unable to maintain its structural integrity. The bridge, because of its width, causes congestion on the highway thus increasing the accident rate. Because of the problems that have come about by the size and physical state of the bridge, a new bridge will be built east of the present one. From the new bridge you will be able to view the two historically significant bridges and have access to the Peter Skene Ogden Scenic Wayside. This wayside is a park where viewers can pull off of the highway to view the historic bridges by foot. The new bridge will be constructed in a deck arch form and have spandrel columns to mimic the other older bridges. It will have four lanes, a median, and wide shoulders for biking.

It was more favorable to build the new bridge to the east of the two historic bridges. The gorge widens considerably west of the Oregon Trunk Railroad bridge thus increasing the cost of the bridge and, if built on the west side, the state would be required to build at least one structure to cross the railroad. If the bridge was built in between the two bridges, it would bisect the Peter Skene Ogden Scenic Wayside park area and the view of the two historical bridges would not be as favorable. The new bridge will be built east of the old bridge and offers these positive points: it has the best scenic view of the two old bridges; the cost of replacing the highway going to the new bridge is less; the strength of the canon walls is greater; the width of the gorge is less thus lowering costs; and the bridge does not interfere with a working cattle ranch that is located farther east of the chosen location.

The old bridge will be repaired and maintained by the Oregon State Parks. Viewers will be able to pull off on a road that will take them to the Peter Skene Ogden Scenic Wayside where they can leisurely view the historical bridges and the Crooked River Gorge.

When the new bridge is built and in use, the gorge might still give me goose bumps, not from fear of the bridge collapsing, but from the grandness of the scenery.

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Information taken from:

"Crooked River Gorge (High) Bridge Replacement; Final Section 4(F) Evaluation." (The Dallas – California Highway/Jefferson County.) Key No. 01294; August 1996. Federal Highway Administration and Oregon Department of Transportation: submitted pursuant to 49 U.S.C., Sec. 303.

Fred J. Becker, Architect's E-mail

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