The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1919-05-15
MOSIER ROAD
WILL STARTLE
LINN HAS ENGINEERING FEATURES
Contemporary Highway Construction Like
Development Of Serial Story
1919 Chapter in Making

INNS VI NlAt NNAdiAl-
bla Highway, contemplation Of the
work accomplished and contracts in
process of fultillment may present
them to the minds eye like some great
serial story or drama. conceived and
arranged for popular reading or in
spection 10y master hands. Indeed, the
suggestion raises a simile that is
worthy of further elaboration.
Like notable book or an appealing
drama great highways are bot dreams
come true. The vision of the author
or the playwright. maybe years before
the story is actually written, grants
him a true picture of his story, and 50,
since the days of the hardships of the
Barlow trail and bateaux on the Co
lumbia, pioneers and their children
have dreamed of completed Columbia
Highway or a Mount Hood Loop. No
man alone ever wrote a book. other
than some fantasy valued only for its
unreality. Tne lives of generations of
men and women have been consumed
in making material for an immortal
book, the author. the individual merely
garnering the dramatic incidents If
single man. before popular approval
had been aroused. had begun the con-
struction of a Columbia Highway on a
private venture he would have been
called a crazy dreamer. Today. senti-
ment united, the great thoroughfafe,
utilitarian as well as scenic, is being
built by the citizens Of Oregon.
The author who runs ahead of the
notions of his contemporaries often
= b.
engineer whose designs of construction
are prophetic.
The Columbia Highway, from Port
land up the river the Indians call
Wanna, where awe inspiring scenery
has been strewn with prodigality by
the action of the elements down
through the ages, to the Hood River
county line, may be termed the pro
phetic stage of Oregon highway con
struction of the contemporary decade.
That is, if one happens to forget the
meagre mile length built by ). Benson
back in 1912 to demonstrate the feast
bility of constructing a road round
Shell Rock mountain. Anyhow, Port
land men Of vision, headed by Mr..
Benson, anticipated new era of high
way building before the rest Of the
state, ard with commendable magnan-
unity Multnomah county pointed the
way. The Multnomah county portion
of the Columbia Highway was the first
chapter in the serial story Of Oregon
highway construction. Unpaved, it
was only rough, but powerful, sketch
at first Today it is an edition de luxe
and more popular than a paper.hack
| thriller.
| Since the Multnomah county portion
of the Highway was built. in annual
succession other chapters of the serial
have been written in Hood River, CO.
umbia and Catsop counties. and that
of the current year is taking shape be-
tween Hood River and Mosier.
All Oregon citizens, those of Hood
River and Wasco counties included,
have pleasant surprises in store when
| the new link of the scenic highway,
six and three-tenths miles in length.
is graded and made passable. Because
earlier road construction and the news
of war and peace table events have
overshadowed it, the public, even that
neighborng, has heard the report that
! the short stretch was under construc'
tion without any abs orbng interest.
The Hood River Mosier length Of the
Highway will cost, under the contract
let to the A. d. Kern Construction
| Co., the sum of S243, 600, and will be
the record amount expended by the
! State Highway Commission for a sin
gle contract. 1t is the heaviest con
struction ever undertaken by the Com
mission for the grade will be cut half
way up the side Of the Columbia gorge
nearly all the distance between the
two apple cities. At the summit, near
the boundary line of the counties, the
maximum elevation Of $50 feet will be
reached. Peculiarly, the minimum al
titude of 95 feet is reached at Mosief
on the up.river end Of the route.
Two tunnels are called for by the
plans of Engineer Scott, in charge of
construction for the Highway depart
ment. One of them, located ASS feet
almost perpendlcularly above the
tracks of the O.-W X. & N. Co., will
be 65 feet long. Then comes an open
road for 65 feet, where the great cliff
side is ndented, when the motorist
eastbound will be plunged into another
tunnel 240 feet long. The second tun.
mel will be lighted by two great win
dows opening like the five at Mitchells
Point. But the Moser windows will
afford view Of much longer stretches
of the river. The Mitchells Point tun-
mel is but little over 100 feet from the
river.
The Highway will gain its elevation
on the side of the gorge at either end
by series of loops. At the Hood
River end the road will wind up the
rangeside by series of four loops.
Steam shoveIs have already eaten
round this looped right Of way and
the new grades and fills have given the
open hillside terraced appearance.
No one who ever travels over the Hood
River Mosier section of the Highway
will have reason to forget Hood River.
The town. built on the gradual slope
which rises from the concrete bridge
across Hood river, and the Columbia,
lies, in plain view. In direct line the
distance to the top Of the rangeside is
about 900 feet. The distance round
the loops is more than 1900 feet.
In past years successive generations
of Hood River road builders had con-
structed three grades up from the city
to the East Side orchard district. The
first was a mere trail, fairly negotiable
in the days of horseback travel. over
the hill. The second, seeking easier
grades, wound around the passes and
| was not bad for mountain hack or
wagon Then came the days Of the
automobile, and the so-called East
Side grade, following around the gorge
| of Hood river, was completed more
| than decade ago. The new road
crosses all of them, appropriatirg here
| and there when the purpose suits, por-
tions of the old rights Of way. Brought
to standard width, the old East Side
grade is followed for 500 feet from the
east end Of the concrete bridge. anc
then the new highway pursues the ole