Dave Knows Portland

December 4, 1915: First Columbia River Interstate Bridge Span Dedicated

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Sunday Oregonian headline, 5 December 1915The plan, on Saturday, December 4, 1915, was to lift the first of twelve Columbia River interstate bridge spans into place, while the crowd of Chamber of Commerce members and other prominent Portland citizens cheered and listened to dry speeches (Morning Oregonian, 4 December 1915). Only part of that plan, however, was carried out that day (The Sunday Oregonian, 5 December 1915).

VANCOUVER, Wash., Dec. 4. – (Special.) – The ceremony of dedicating the first great span of steel for the Columbia River interstate bridge was held today on the Northern Pacific dock, and everything was carried out according to programme with the exception of floating out the span. When a high wind arose it was decided by the contractors, McCreary & Willard, to postpone the moving of the span until about 1 o’clock Monday afternoon.

The crowd of hundreds, however, stayed and listed to music by the Twenty-first Infantry band and speeches by enthusiastic boosters of the bridge.

On Monday, December 6, 1915 the span, resting on several barges, was steamed into place by the tugs Paloma and Hustler and connected (Morning Oregonian, 7 December 1915).

Ground had been broken on March 6, 1915 and the bridge opened on February 15, 1917 with a toll of 5 cents. A trolley trial run was conducted on January 24, 1917, and the streetcars ran regular between Portland and Vancouver until the 1940s. The second span opened to traffic on July 1, 1958.

December 3, 1971: Oregon Trail Game Played for the First Time

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Oregon Trail screenshotOregon Trail, one of the first simulation computer games, was first played in Don Rawitsch’s history class at Bryant Junior High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 3, 1971.

The history teacher created the game as an educational aid. Originally a board game, Rawitsch and colleagues Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger realized it would make a good computer program. Dillenberger and Heinemann spent two weeks crammed into a former janitor’s closet at the junior high school programming a teletype machine, a screen-less, electromechanical typewriter connected via telephone to a mainframe computer that could issue prompts, receive commands, and run primitive programs.

With no monitor, the original version of Oregon Trail was played by answering prompts that printed out on a roll of paper. At 10 characters per second, the teletype spat out, “How much do you want to spend on your oxen team?” or, “Do you want to eat (1) poorly (2) moderately or (3) well?” Students typed in the numerical responses, then the program chugged through a few basic formulas and spat out the next prompt along with a status update.

In 1974 Rawitsch was working for the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) when he made the game, with many updates, available to classrooms across Minnesota. It quickly became one of the most popular programs. Eventually the game was made available on the Apple II, and later DOS and other platforms. Over 65 million copies of Oregon Trail have been sold since 1971, making it the most popular educational game of all time.

December 2, 1964: I-5 Opens to Traffic through North Portland

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The Oregonian headline, 3 December 1964Portland’s Minnesota Freeway through North Portland, part of the Interstate 5 system, opened to automobile traffic on December 2, 1964 (The Oregonian, 3 December 1964). Construction of the $22 million, 4.8 mile strip of pavement began in 1959.

The freeway’s opening marked the end of an era for the neon-lit Interstate Avenue.

Traffic raced through North Portland in a trench, three blocks west of the Highway 99W surface route. At service stations, restaurants and motels along “the Avenue,” implications were setting in. The era of interstate travel on Interstate Avenue was over.

Read more at Cafe Unknown: Illuminating Interstate.

December 1, 1900: Oregon Crushes Washington in First Football Game Between the Two Schools

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The Sunday Oregonian headline, 2 December 1900The University of Oregon football team outclassed the visiting eleven from the University of Washington in the first game ever played between the two teams on December 1, 1900 (The Sunday Oregonian, 2 December 1900).

EUGENE, Or., Dec. 1. – All that proud, athletic Washington loved and cherished was taken from it this afternoon and ruefully tramped in the bitter mud of defeat by the husky young pigskin-kickers of the University of Oregon. The score, 43 to 0, stands for a splendid exposition of sport, in which the visitors were clearly outclassed. By powerful line plunges and swift end runs, the Oregon boys were able to score at will, but not once during the whole 60 minutes of play did Washington menace the Webfoot goal.

Washington won the rematch three years later and controls the all time series 57-41-5, but still, in that first game in 1900, one cannot easily forget all that proud, athletic Washington loved and cherished was taken from it . . . and ruefully tramped in the bitter mud of defeat.

November 30, 1912: Abigail Scott Duniway Signs Oregon’s Equal Suffrage Proclamation

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Headline and photo from Morning Oregonian 1 December 1912
Tireless suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway signed Oregon’s Equal Suffrage Proclamation on November 30, 1912 (Morning Oregonian, 1 December 1912).

“Abigail Scott Duniway; done in her 79th year.”

Below the name of Governor Oswald West upon the proclamation that makes equal suffrage effective in Oregon, the counter-signature of Mrs. Duniway, written by her yesterday, was her final word in a campaign that has been carried on by her indomitably for more than 41 years.

“There,” she said, as she laid down the pen and the Governor bent over her shoulder to place the blotter upon the signature; “It’s a fact at last.”

The proclamation was written by Mrs. Duniway herself at Governor West’s suggestion and, with the exception of his signature and the attesting signature of Secretary of State Olcott, every line upon the parchment was made by her pen.

The proclamation celebrated Oregon voters’ early November approval of women’s suffrage. The successful 1912 campaign removed the word “male” from voting privileges outlined in the Oregon Constitution.

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