Tilikum Crossing Bridge crosses the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon and is the largest car-free bridge in the United States. While the Tilikum Crossing Bridge doesn’t carry any car traffic it is still busy with traffic from the Portland Streetcar, the MAX Orange Line, TriMet buses, cyclists and pedestrians.

The name of the bridge seems to be a little strange but the word “Tilikum” is the Chinook tribe’s word for “people” which makes the name of the bridge to be the People’s Crossing Bridge which make a lot of sense for a bridge that focus on public transportation, cyclists and pedestrian traffic.

The bridge was built in 2015 and was designed with the angles of the cables to mirror the outline of Mount Hood which can be seen in the distance from Portland. Looking at the photo below it is easy to see the shape of a mountain made by the outline of the cables.

In the evening, the Willamette River near the Tilikum Crossing Bridge is a popular place for rowing teams. Two types of boats can be seen are sweep rowing boats and dragon boats that are seen in the following two photos.

One of my favorite times in any city is when the day transitions to night. Many of the buildings and other structures in cities are designed to be transformed from their daytime functional purpose into a night time attraction. This is the case for the Tilikum Crossing Bridge. When the sun begins to set the bridge lights up and becomes a beautiful night time attraction. This transformation is shown in the following pictures.

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