Oregon City / West Linn Arch Bridge

The Oregon City /​West Linn Arch Bridge is a fun small-​town style bridge.
It just goes across a small opening of the Willamette River and it looks extraordinary. The arch is in plain white and it has a very textured feel to it.
You can walk across this bridge and there is still a little bit of the city beneath it. I enjoyed walking across it and seeing much of Oregon City, including it’s old factories.
The bridge is small and intimate, even close to an easy crosswalk. The simplicity of it works well design wise. It is a landmark that makes Oregon City special.

It’s an attractive bridge but it feels so narrow, it is scary driving across it! Why not take out one side of the walking path and make it a few feet wider? I think that would make it safer for cars and pedestrians. I avoid using it.

Oregon City /​West Linn Arch Bridge (1922)
There was a suspension bridge here before it was replaced by the West Linn /​Oregon City Arch. The arch bridge is really cool looking but it’s scary driving over it against traffic for how little the lanes give you to pass. They reopened the arch after a thorough refurbish job in Oct. 2012. Came out super nice looking

It’s Finally Going To Open!!! This bridge has been dearly missed for the last 2 years. After 90 years of service, it was due for much needed repairs and restoration.
Willamette Falls Festival will celebrate the reopening with a 3 day festival October 12 — 14^th. Lots of events, tents, races, fireworks, art and even a mass vow renewal ceremony on the bridge October 14^th at 1pm. Married couples can register online for this FREE Vow Renewal ceremony and even a Reception at the Pacific Crest Grand Ballroom. Register by October 8^th at
This will be a great event and a perfect way to celebrate the bridge finally reopening!!!

Will you open already?
I’ve been inconvenienced by the closure of this bridge almost daily for the past 18 months. And while I don’t expect the re-​opening in October to magically solve the I-​205 snarl through West Linn, it certainly can’t hurt.
My observation is that the closure has been particularly disruptive to the business owners in downtown Oregon City. What was once an easy jog from West Linn to Oregon City became much more of an ordeal during the commute hours. And sometimes it just isn’t worth the effort.
To coincide with the reopening of the bridge, they’ve been repaving and refreshing Main Street in downtown Oregon City, so things may finally get back on track for customers and businesses next month.
Aside from the transportation aspect, this small bridge has a fun little spot in my heart as a West Linn resident. The West Linn-​Oregon City game is the longest continuously played football rivalry west of the Mississippi. Because the high school football fields are located within a mile of the bridge on either side, in the old days it was common for one school’s players and fans to march across the bride to the other school’s stadium with a police escort, no less. The football game is known as «The Battle of the Bridge.»
Another fun fact for the engineers out there is that this is the only bridge in Oregon encased in gunite, which protects it from corrosive sulfur dioxide emissions from paper mills south of the bridge. The re-​opening will be part of the Willamette Falls Festival (aka Lock Fest), October 12 — 14:
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Bridge Re-​opens to Traffic October 15, 2012.