Peter Iredale, Trestle Bay, Astoria–Megler Bridge
2012.09.30
In 1890, the four-masted Peter Iredale was built in Maryport, England, with steel plates on an iron frame. She was 285 feet long and weighed about 2,075 tons.
In the fall of 1906, the ship left Salina Cruz, Mexico and charted a course for Portland, Oregon. Captain H. Lawrence sighted the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse at 3:20 am on October 25, 1906, about twenty miles south of the Columbia River. When the ship was within five miles of the river mouth, a heavy northwest squall drove her onto the Clatsop Spit, about a mile from the newly-constructed Battery Russell at Fort Stevens.
The twenty-seven crew were assisted by a lifeboat and taken to Fort Stevens. At first, the hull damage was minimal, and plans were made to tow her back to sea. But as weeks passed and the stormy weather continued, she listed to port and sunk in the sand. The Peter Iredale was sold for scrap. Over a century later, all that remains is the skeleton frame of the bow.
Graveyard of the Pacific
The Peter Iredale was certainly not the first, or last, shipwreck in the region. A long stretch of the Pacific Northwest coastline, from Tillamook Bay in Oregon to Cape Scott at the north end of Vancouver Island is known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific”. A primarily rocky coastline, combined with frequent heavy fog, strong winds, large waves, and changing currents have doomed thousands of ships and boats.
While wrecks have occurred all along the coastline, they are concentrated at the Columbia Bar, a roughly three-mile by six-mile crescent-shaped protrusion of ever-changing sandbars and shoals at the mouth of the river. Today, even after the Columbia River has been dammed to within an inch of its life, the river current hits the Pacific Ocean at 4 to 7 knots, crashing into the opposing ocean waves and jet stream winds. In the worst storms, the winds can top 100 mph. Waves cresting over fifty feet have been recorded; even 100-foot waves have been claimed. Lloyds of London reputedly rates it the most hazardous river bar crossing in the world.
Trestle Bay
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the South Jetty of the Columbia River in 1895. Over time, sand accumulation around the jetty created a shallow bay of mudflats and marshes. The official name is Jetty Lagoon, but the common name is Trestle Bay. The trestles are all that remain of the railway that was used to construct the jetty.
Astoria–Megler Bridge
After leaving Fort Stevens, I took U.S. Route 101 through Astoria, Oregon. For the first time, I crossed the Astoria–Megler Bridge across the Columbia River to Washington.
The Long Beach Peninsula of Washington State remained an isolated region for many decades, practically accessible only by water. At least three steamboat landings developed, at Ilwaca, Megler, and Nachotta. After a paved road between Portland and Astoria, Oregon was completed in 1916, the demand for steamers declined. Still, regular ferry service continued from the 1920’s between Astoria and Megler or McGowan. After various private ventures, the ferry service was taken over by the Oregon State Highway Department in 1946.
As automobile traffic increased, the half-hour ferry connection became a bottleneck on 101, which was otherwise complete from Los Angeles, California to Olympia, Washington. Furthermore, the ferries did not operate in inclement weather (no shortage of that, natch). Bridge construction began in 1962 and opened to traffic in 1966. It operated as a toll bridge until 1993.
The bridge is 21,474 feet long. The main span stands almost 200 feet above the shipping channel near the Oregon side and is 1,232 feet long. The main span is a “continuous rigid-cantilever Warren through truss” design, considered the longest continuous-truss bridge in North America (just the main span).
F.S. Battery Russell