Friday, October 19, 1923: That the Portland Chamber of Commerce will oppose the Rainier-Longview bridge is evident from a report accepted by the Portland chamber after sending a committee out to investigate the proposition thoroughly during the past two weeks. Their objections are based upon the perception that a bridge would obstruct river navigation, and related safety issues.
It has been a well known fact that Portland is violently opposed to the construction of the bridge; the reason that there might be "too much competition in bridges." The Vancouver bridge is yielding a big surplus which is going into the coffers of Clarke county, Washington, and Multnomah county, Oregon, and it is quite natural that the beneficiaries do not like to have this revenue diminished.
Friday, November 9, 1923: The latest recommendation regarding the Rainier-Longview bridge proposition is still "no bridge" but this time a substitute is offered -- a steel tube encased in concrete, placed under the bed of the Columbia river. Three prominent engineers of the Northwest are said to have recommended the tube as preferable to the bridge.
It is argued that such a plan would be far less expensive than
a bridge, and that the underground crossing would remove the
obstruction to traffic that has been the chief objection to a
bridge at this point. This plan, it is pointed out, is used in
England, where a similar tube crosses under the Mersey river.
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