The View from a Drawbridge

2 responses to “The Audacity”

1. 

   Sharon Wood Wortman

   Mar 29, 2021 at 4:29 am

   Dear Bridge Operator Blogger: it’s time I told you how much I enjoy reading you — for both your content and facility with language; also for your politics and back story. You are like a bus driver with words. You know where to go fast and where to stop, more often than not getting your passengers where we didn’t know we needed to go by the time your shift is over. I am not sure where I first boarded your thoughtful blog (a few months ago), but I can bet I know the original reason why. What you do for a living appeals to my line of curiosity. I wrote a 10-week newspaper series about the big river bridges found on Portland, Oregon’s waterfront in April 1984 — almost exactly 37 years ago now. The series turned into the first book about the mighty movable and fixed span big river bridges found in Oregon’s largest city—none of which are owned or operated by the city of Portland. Except for three railroad-owned spans and a few freeway bridges under the jurisdiction of ODOT, the rest of our downtown bridges are owned by Multnomah County — my digression meant to explain why I don’t like calling the subject of my obsession “Portland’s bridges,” as the city neither owns nor operates them. (To call them PBs would be like my condoning the offspring of divorced parents being forced to carry their father’s name despite Dad doesn’t pay child support.) The 1984 series turned into my becoming a full time freelance journalist and publishing entrepreneur. Four books about bridges have followed for what has earned me maybe somewhere between half a penny and a penny a word, tops. This doesn’t count my participating in documenting the Ross Island, Fremont, Burnside, and Sellwood bridges for a 1999 study of a slew of Willamette River bridges sponsored by the Historic American Engineering Record for the Library of Congress — a job that paid even less than a half penny a word while promising my work would be in print for 500 years! My pioneering walks inside the bascule pit of the Morrison Bridge for 20 years for school groups, conventions and Portland Parks & Rec paid only a little better. However, sticking to my subject did lead me to winning the love lottery. I married construction engineer Ed Wortman in 1998 when I was well into my fifties. Late to the Portland scene in terms of my bridge history, Ed (born in Maine) wasn’t the source of my original inspiration to begin writing on our shared interest. He has, however, been a co-conspirator and co-collaborator for several bridge-focused projects since our meeting. (Our newly out of print “The Big & Awesome Bridges of Portland & Vancouver” book, written and produced with the support of Portland Public School District under the sponsorship of a 501(c)3 nonprofit, has just been reformatted and is available as an ePub book.) During the past almost 28 years, as another example of our collaboration, Ed continues to help me grandparent 11 grandchildren and, most recently great-grandparent a great-grandchild, all dozen of which mostly came along later with the territory of my being a long-time twice-divorced single-parent of four adult children by the time Ed and I met. It would take the engineer who put together the Fremont Bridge (longest tied arch in the world when it opened in 1973) to keep up with all that went with my terrain when we met in 1993 and all that would come along later. I could go on, but I will stop for now. I need to get back to sleep. (I am what my therapist calls “an organic sleeper.) I close with an invitation: send me your USPS mailing address with zip and I will send you a book or two (my gift) that I am almost 100% positive you will enjoy since the subject matter is right up your professional alley of interest. Meanwhile, check out the six new footbridges added to the Portland-Vancouver bridge horizon since 2014, added just this week to the site http://www.bigandawesomebridges.org. If you like what you see, please feel free to tell those who are currently riding along with you. Last, if you ever visit my subject area in person, I would be pleased to meet you and yours to take you for the insider Willamette-Columbia rivers bridge walk. They don’t call me the Portland Bridge Lady for nothing. I even once took a group of people from Portland to tour the bridge’s of Seattle, expanding my knowledge base. I would have preferred being named the Multnomah County Bridge Maven back in the beginning of my bridge life — drastically different than my pre-bridge life — but at my age and station in being, I am just thankful today to still be called anything at all.

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   1. 

      The View from a Drawbridge

      Mar 29, 2021 at 9:16 am

      Sharon! My goodness! Hi! What a fascinating life you have led! We have much to talk about! I love the bridges in your area, and would enjoy a tour! They don’t allow us to give tours here anymore due to liability, and it breaks my heart. I would, indeed, love to have your books, and would be happy to send you a copy of mine as well. I’ve long wanted to publish a book of my drawbridge stories, but I’ve had no luck finding a publisher, and I don’t want to self publish it, only to have it languish in obscurity, so any advice you could give me on that would be much appreciated. I also invite you (and anyone else who may be interested) to join my Drawbridge Lovers Facebook page. Speaking of which, I’m sending you a friend request on Facebook. If you accept it, I can then send you my address in private message. Thank you so much for reaching out!

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