Rose Festival Fleet Week (June 8-13, 2011)

The 2011 Rose Festival Fleet Week begins Wednesday, June 8 – so you know what that means, bridge lifts!

The raising and lowering of the bridges, as I like to call this annual event, begins with ship arrivals Wednesday and Thursday, and then ends Monday when the last of the visiting ships leaves the Portland sea wall.

Hard Drive, the OregonLive.com commuter blog, reports that the Broadway, Steel, Burnside, and Morrison bridges will be lifted at times Wednesday, June 8 from 11am to 5pm.

For more specific arrival and departure times, check out the Columbia River Pilots website dispatch status page (CWALL, I believe, refers to the sea wall along Waterfont Park).

The 2011 Rose Festival Fleet consists of the following ships:

United States Navy
USS Lake Champlain (CG 57)
USS Ingraham (FFG 61)
USS McClusky (FFG 41)

Canadian Maritime Forces
HCMS Saskatoon
HMCS Whitehorse

United States Coast Guard
USCGC Active
USCGC Fir
USCGC Bluebell
USCGC Henry Blake

Army Corps of Engineers
ACOE Redlinger
ACOE Essayons

Historic Ships
Sternwheeler Portland
PT 658

Public tours will be available from 9:30am to 3:30pm from Thursday to Sunday, but the ships make their own schedules, so the times are estimates. The free tours are on a first-come, first-served basis.