Marquam Bridge

Stand tall even when others object

The Marquam Bridge is a double deck cantilever bridge that carries Interstate 5 traffic across the Willamette River just south of downtown Portland, Oregon. The upper deck carries northbound traffic; the lower deck carries southbound traffic.  Even though the Marquam is the busiest bridge in Oregon it was admonished by the Portland Arts Commission for obliterating prime city views and by Mayor Vera Katz’s State of the City address in 2001 described the Marquam as, “. . . having the Berlin Wall dividing east and west, with all the subtle charm of the Daytona 500 smack dab in the middle of our city.”