Transit Bridge Name Final Four: Duniway, Cascadia, Tillicum, Wy'East

Transit Bridge

By AARON MESH

On a recent morning, a flagger standing next to the under-construction Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge told a WW employee that the landmark was getting a new name: The Abigail Scott Duniway Transit Bridge.

"That's what everybody's saying," she told our jogging correspondent.

A Duniway Bridge—named for the trailblazing suffragist and newspaper publisher—is one step closer to reality today. 

TriMet released the four bridge-name finalists this morning, in an Oregon Historical Society ceremony that markedly resembled the Oscar nominations. The list is:

  1. The Abigail Scott Duniway Transit Bridge
  2. Cascadia Crossing Transit Bridge
  3. Tillicum Crossing Transit Bridge, Bridge of the People
  4. Wy’east Transit Bridge 


TriMet explains the selections in some detail here. Duniway, it's worth noting, is the only person chosen: The other names refer to locations or concepts.

Not making the cut: "Working" Kirk Reeves, the street musician who regularly played trumpet at the on-ramp of the Hawthorne Bridge, or Mark Rothko, the painter who grew up in Southwest Portland.

Both sparked online campaigns last year. 

Check out WW's photo essay on Portland's bridges—including the new transit bridge.

WWeek 2015

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