Wapato Bridge

The Wapato Bridge, formerly known as the Sauvie Island Bridge, crosses the Multnomah Channel of the Willamette River near Portland, Oregon, United States. The original Parker truss bridge, built in 1950 with a 200 ft main span, was replaced with a tied arch bridge with a 360 ft span in 2008 due to cracks discovered in 2001.

In November 2022, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted to rename the bridge in honor of the Native Americans who originally lived on Sauvie Island. Subsequently, Wapato Bridge was chosen as the new name, and the change went into effect in November 2023.

Old bridge
Opened on December 30, 1950, the first bridge to Sauvie Island replaced the Sauvie Island Ferry. The $900,000 bridge, equivalent to $ today, was designed by the Oregon Department of Transportation and built by Gilpin Construction. Oregon transferred ownership to Multnomah County in 1951. Composed of three steel truss spans, it was a total of 1198 ft long, with the main span measuring 200 ft in length. The approach spans were built of reinforced concrete girders. Green in color, the bridge was 41 ft wide and carried two lanes of traffic and had sidewalks on both sides. The main span, a Parker truss, sat 80 ft above the water line and handled an average of 3,800 vehicles per day.

New bridge


After cracks were found in the 1950 span in 2001, Multnomah County restricted weight and speed on the bridge. Early designs for a new bridge were submitted in July 2004, and groundbreaking was held on January 4, 2006. The new $38 million span was designed by H2L2 Architecture with David Evans & Associates as the design engineers, and built by Max J. Kuney Company. Located at river mile three, the main span is 360 ft long and rests 80 ft above the water. The main span is of a tied arch design constructed of steel, while the approach spans are a box-girder style using pre-stressed concrete. The bridge has two lanes of traffic with shoulders and sidewalks on both sides for a total width of 66 feet. The bridge was floated into place after it was constructed.

In March 2006, then-city commissioner Sam Adams proposed reusing the Sauvie Island bridge span as a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over Interstate 405 in downtown Portland, as part of the Burnside/Couch Transportation and Urban Design Plan. A coalition of Portland community groups including the Pearl District Neighborhood Association and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance supported the idea. Adams ultimately retracted the proposal, realizing the cost would likely be more than the $5.5 million he had originally stated.

The $43 million new bridge opened June 23, 2008. The old bridge was removed in August 2008 and was scrapped at Schnitzer Steel Industries.

In November 2023, following a vote by the county's board of commissioners a year earlier, the Sauvie Island Bridge was renamed Wapato Bridge, in honor of the Native Americans who originally lived on the island.