Multnomah East Viaduct
Route 2
Built: 1914
Robert W. Hadlow, Columbia River Highway Historic District, National Historic Landmark Nomination
CS14. Structure: East Multnomah Falls Viaduct, No. 841 HAER No. OR-36-J
Location: HMP 32.3
Date: 1914
Designer: K. P. Billner, Oregon State Highway Dept.
Builder: Pacific Bridge Company, Portland
Owner: Oregon Department of Transportation
This 860-foot viaduct originally consisted of forty-three 20-foot reinforced-concrete slab spans. The deck was supported by two parallel rows of 16-foot-square columns, 17'-6" apart. Roadway width is about 18 feet.
To provide greater stability to the structure, the Oregon State Highway Department, in 1922, added sets of intermediate posts and transverse walls at the midpoint of each span. Like the West Multnomah Falls Viaduct, this structure rises up the hillside because of tight right-of-way clearances with the nearby railroad mainline, and has a concrete retaining wall running along its south elevation. The arched railings were constructed of plaster concrete and metal lath. They represent a member of the family of bridge railing designs found on the CRH.
Hadlow, Landmark Nomination, 20
"Just east of Multnomah Falls it was necessary to construct a similar viaduct 860 feet in length, the greatest height being 22 feet above the railway track, where the slopes of the mountain were very steep."
Lancaster, 1914 65
Photo Currently Unavailable
Retaining Wall, East Multnomah ViaductDavison, Danae, Barbara Knapp. Cultural Landscape Inventory: Shellrock Mountain to Ruthton Point - Historic Columbia River Highway. Oregon Department of Transportation. January 2010. (31)