"Tilikum Crossing" (PSU-OMSI bridge) opening 2015

[BroadwayVik]

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland...-from-a-bridge-what-the-vistas-will-look.html

The Tilikum Crossing won't open until September 2015 (the same time the light-rail line between Portland and Milwaukie starts operating), but that doesn't mean Portlanders can't get a gander at some of the views, and other engineering work, the bridge will accord. Click through for an early look at the "Bridge of the People."

The “Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People” name was chosen unanimously by a committee that included noted Portland historian Chet Orloff. The name "speaks to our past, our future, and the importance of transit connecting our community,” said TriMet GM Neil McFarlane.

The new bridge could carry two redirected bus lines, the 9 and the 17, which deliver riders between East Portland and downtown.

The view from the bridge to the south reveals a different look at the South Waterfront district. The Tilikum Crossing is the first multi-modal bridge in the U.S. to carry light rail and streetcar trains, buses, bikes and pedestrians. It will not accommodate private vehicles.

The Tilikum Crossing will let out near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The light rail trains crossing the bridge will stop at stations at OMSI and at nearby Southeast Clinton Street. Developers believe the stations will spur reams of development near the Central Eastside Industrial District.

The view to the north from the Tilikum Crossing features a sprinkling of downtown Portland buildings peeking over the Marquam Bridge.

Those traveling west on the Tilikum Crossing will land at the new Oregon Health & Science University Collaborative Life Sciences Center, which opened to visitors yesterday.

A look at support pieces of the Tilikum Crossing. The name comes from the Chinook Wawa international language.

The Chinook population "are indigenous peoples and tribes who have lived near the Columbia and Willamette rivers for 14,000 years," TriMet staffers wrote in touting the Tilikum Crossing's name. "However, Chinook jargon is not the language of any one tribe."