Washington ~ September 5, 2010This is the other end of the famous Astoria-Megler bridge, which crosses the Columbia River between Astoria (the land mass on the left) and Washington, where I'm standing. This is the same bridge with the recognizable towers seen in most of the bridge photos on this blog. The towers are there in the distance, but the bridge is 4.1 miles long, and they've become lost in the dim light. The structures you see here actually fade away to a very low rail, and the bed of the bridge lies closer to the water for much of its span, then it arcs up again near the Oregon side so cargo ships can pass beneath it. The two sections in the photo that look like boxcars or a covered bridge are only temporarily covered with sheeting so the bridge can be painted. Nearby is Dismal Nitch, part of the Lewis and Clark story. There was a fishing station (now gone) near here called Megler. The Dismal Nitch link will also tell you about Joseph Megler.
6 comments:
Back in the day, when there were ferries instead of the bridge, the ferry run was called the Astoria-Megler ferry. There was a cafe at the Megler end where folks would grab a cup of coffee or quick bit to eat while waiting for the ferry. In addition, just west of Megler was the little town of McGowan (McGowen?) with a delightful little country church. Unfortnately, all of that is gone now.
for fisherfolk: in front of you is a deep channel of water excellent for sturgeon fishing
Love this bridge. I was thinking, "My god, that's a long bridge." And then I read the 4.1 mile statement.
It's beautiful! And this is a beautiful photo!
I can say that I'm quite familiar with this bridge now... and it's so long!
Must get a lot of traffic.
VP is right... we get to the point of being quite familiar with something we've never seen except here on the blogs. Nice one, Sheryl.
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