Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1
| Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 |
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| Coordinates | 45°34′38″N 122°44′48″W / 45.57730°N 122.74678°WCoordinates: 45°34′38″N 122°44′48″W / 45.57730°N 122.74678°W |
| Carries | 2 railroad tracks, used by freight trains and by Amtrak toward Seattle or Spokane |
| Crosses | Willamette River |
| Locale | Portland, Oregon |
| Owner | BNSF Railway |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | 1989 to present: Vertical-lift bridge 1908–89: Swing bridge |
| Total length | 1,763 feet (537 m) |
| Longest span | 516 feet (157 m) |
| Number of spans | 5 |
| Clearance below | 200 feet (61 m) when lift span fully raised |
| History | |
| Opened | 1908; main span replaced 1989 |
 Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 (Portland, Oregon)
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The Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 or BNSF Railway Bridge 5.1, also known as the St. Johns Railroad Bridge or the Willamette River Railroad Bridge, is a through truss railway bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Built by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) and completed in 1908, it was originally a swing-span bridge, and its swing-span section was the longest in the world at the time. However, 81 years later the main span was converted from a swing-type to a vertical-lift type, in order to widen the navigation channel. The lift span is one of the highest and longest in the world. The bridge consists of five sections, with the two sections closest to the bank on each side fixed.
The BNSF Railway owns the bridge, and the 5.1 denotes the distance in miles from Portland's Union Station or from the nearby North Bank Depot (or Hoyt Street Depot), which was the Portland terminus of SP&S passenger service coming via this bridge until 1922. The bridge's two tracks are used by freight trains of BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad and by Amtrak passenger trains. Of 12 bridges across the Willamette River within the city of Portland, it is the sole rail-only bridge and the only bridge not open to the public. It is located at river mile 6.9.
The original, swing-span bridge was built in 1906–08 by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S), as part of construction of a new line between Vancouver, Washington and Portland. SP&S was formed jointly by the Northern Pacific Railway and Great Northern Railway, originally as the Portland & Seattle Railway, to build and ultimately operate new railroad lines from Portland to Seattle and Portland to Spokane, but was renamed Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway—in early 1908, before opening any track sections—after construction of the Portland–Spokane line got under way before the Seattle line. The planned new railroad was commonly referred to as the "North Bank road" (road being short for railroad or railroad line), or North Bank line, because the Seattle line would follow the Columbia River's north bank as far as Kelso and the Spokane line would also follow the north bank, running east from Vancouver. East from Portland, the south bank of the Columbia already had a rail line, owned by the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (later absorbed by Union Pacific Railroad).
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