one dry spot : cedar crossing covered bridge

Cedar Crossing BridgeFirst and Only Covered Bridge in Multnomah County, Oregon

One Dry Spot

Bridges are perhaps the most invisible form of public architecture.

An Historical MemorialA Daily Reminder

Bridges become frames for looking at the world around us.

Lea Wikman, lobbied Don Clark, Multnomah County Executive, for the county to build a covered span. He agreed and suggested that the bridge "be over a stream where the foliage is thick and turns to shades of yellow and orange in the autumn and children can peer out windows to see the waters below."

Original Deardorf Bridge

OTAK Proposed Design

SpecificationsLength 66 feet

Roadway 24 feet

Walkway 5 feet

Siding Board & Batten

Vertical clearance 14 feet

World Guide # 37 - 26- B

Interior Detail

10 Gothic style windows to provide light and ventilation

Interior finish knotty pine

Road/abutment costs $74,800

New Bridge costs $93,450

TOTAL : $168,250

CONSTRUCTION COSTS

Contract Awarded to :

Project Time Line :

November 1981 Demolish existing bridge;

November/December 1981 Replace bridge;

January 1982 GRAND OPENING !!!

Dedication Day

Historical Marker

• This covered bridge, the first ever built in Multnomah County, was dedicated January 16, 1982, by County Executive Donald E. Clark and Lea Wikman, chairwomen of Powellhurst Community Planning Group, as a nostalgic tribute to ingenious frontiersmen who built such structures throughout western Oregon in the 19th and 20th centuries.

• The bridge was named by Ginell Lamont in a contest among David Douglas School students.

• The creek below is named for William Johnson who built a sawmill in Lents in the 1850’s. The road commemorates WA Deardorf, who petitioned the County to build the original road in 1898.

Lea Wikman, head of the Community Covered Bridge Committee….assisted in the ceremony.

Rest in Peace May 1982

May

Todays Bridge

2010 National Bridge Report

Daily traffic 1476 (2% trucks)

Deck satisfactory condition

Substructure good condition

Superstructure very good condition

Credits• Photos:

Steve Turner, Western Wood Products; Tim McCann, Lea Wikman Archive; The Oregonian, Randy Wood;

• Sources: The Bridge Lady, Sharon Wood-Wortman; The Oregonian; Wikman Family Archives;

• Produced by: Wikman Multi-Media