. Electric railway journal . and fromthe south was in itself a serious problem. The SouthernPacifics line, leaving the city on a 4 per cent grade, windsup among the mountains which surround Portland to thesouth and west until an altitude of over 600 ft. is Oregon Electric Railway Company, after a numberof careful surveys, selected a route out along the side hills,and with a maximum grade of 2^ per cent reaches an alti-tude of about 450 ft. in a distance of 5 miles, from whichpoint it can reach any locality in the valley by easy gradesand curves. The main line of the company extends
. Electric railway journal . and fromthe south was in itself a serious problem. The SouthernPacifics line, leaving the city on a 4 per cent grade, windsup among the mountains which surround Portland to thesouth and west until an altitude of over 600 ft. is Oregon Electric Railway Company, after a numberof careful surveys, selected a route out along the side hills,and with a maximum grade of 2^ per cent reaches an alti-tude of about 450 ft. in a distance of 5 miles, from whichpoint it can reach any locality in the valley by easy gradesand curves. The main line of the company extends ap-proximately south from Portland a distance of milesto Salem. In addition, there is a branch from GardenHome Junction, 7 miles from Salem, extending west to Forest Grove. TRACK The construction of the track and substructure was ren-dered difficult, due to four causes inherent in the countryand the route: 1. The hills which guard the entrance to Portland. 2. The Willamette River, which had to be crossed at a. road, namely, the Portland-San Francisco main line divi-sion of the Southern Pacific, which traverses the full lengthof the valley. For more than 20 years a Willamette suburban electricline had been planned by as many companies, but beyondan occasional streak of rust left here and there by a Oregon Electric Railway—Willamette River Bridge height sufficient to pass river-going craft underneath, al-lowing for 46 ft. clearance at high-water level. 3. The rainy season, which lasts five months, and dur-ing which time the soil is difficult to work. 4. The scarcity of material suitable for the 70 miles of line there are many bridges, trestles March 20, 1909.] ELECTRIC RAILWAY JOURNAL 495 and undergrade crossings, the most important structurebeing the bridge over the Willamette River. This bridgeis 3422 ft. long. It is made up of four steel spans (810 ft.)carried by concrete-steel piers and approached by two high-
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