Vancouver Land Bridge 101

by Steve Eshom

Last week on my way home from my weekly tour of Vancouver railfan hangouts I noticed the Vancouver Land Bridge was open and folks were wandering all around it.   I’ve been watching this project and keeping an eye out for how it might be used to see to never before photographed areas of the Fallbridge sub. 

Before I dive into the trains, what the heck is the land bridge all about?  The Vancouver Land Bridge is “a 40-foot wide, earth covered arch over Washington State Highway 14 providing pedestrians, bicyclists and non-motorized vehicles with scenic vistas and safe passage from the Vancouver National Historic Reserve to the Columbia River waterfront”.   Unfortunately the berm that the railroad rides on from Eighth Street to east of Eavan cuts off the bulk of eastern downtown from the Columbia River water front.  The land bridge combined with the existing underpass for Old Apple Tree Park are one of the many steps planned to break down this barrier and reconnect Vancouver with the Columbia.   

What is the Vancouver Land Bridge?

When I arrived at the park this morning two trains were imminent, Amtrak 27 and an eastbound Tacoma stack train.  I expected 27 to be the full 7/27 consist today so shooting it from the land bridge seemed like a good plan to get all or most all of the train in the photo.  I climbed up the bridge to the “River” rotunda and scoped out the situation.  The views are quite good from here though since the land bridge is on the north side of the tracks caution will have to be used with the lighting.  In the summers when the sun rises and sets quite far north I’m expecting early morning and late evening photos will be fairly decent.  The tracks are on a WNW-ESE orientation so only time will tell how this will work out.  I did laugh to myself when I thought about 200 railfans lining the fence the next time the 4449 heads east! 

Amtrak 27 has a full 7/27 consist thanks to the snow in the Cascades

With 27 by the S TCPLPC departed Vancouver and headed for the land bridge.  With eastbound trains you can incorporate parts of the bridge to give a context to the scene.  For the first photo of the stacker I included the curvy walkway along with some folks getting some exercise.   The fence along the track side is easily photographed over even for the most “height challenged” railfans. 

S TCPLPC passes the Vancouver Land Bridge

For the railfan purist there are other views of eastbounds including this unobstructed view from the “River” rotunda.

S TCPLPC departs Vancouver with the iconic I-5 bridge as a backdrop

The land bridge is adorned with signage to help the visitor to Vancouver’s National Historic Reserve understand the significant history of this area.  All sorts of topics are covered including transportation.  Though I have to say I think the transportation sign missed a significant use of the Columbia River that is…well…right under its nose. 

This sign celebrates the Columbia River as transportation corridor though some
obvious usages of the river canyon are left out despite their relative closeness.

As a link between Vancouver and the River the land bridge gets high marks.  It seems folks are using it since in the hour I was there 15 or 20 people passed by.  It is very comfortable with wide open spaces and natural, small to moderate landscaping.  Other than the constant noise from SR-14 the user can barely tell it is present thanks to careful visual obstruction.  As a railfan location its not bad though, like I warned above, the lighting won’t be great through 90% of clear summer days.  Cloudy days where the lighting is more diffused will prove to be the best use of this spot.   There are still some hidden gems (in fact there is a sign dedicated to one of the gems) here though.   In the end I think we have us a $12.25 million dollar railfanning platform to enjoy!

(Note: Another fan group, airplane fans, will enjoy the “Land” rotunda thanks to it proximity to Pearson Airfield)

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under trip reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.