All roads lead to Portland. In 1843, William Overton realized all roads would pass through Stump-town. Lacking the necessary funds to file for the original 640 acres, he went 50-50 with Asa Lovejoy and then promptly sold his 320 to Francis Pettygrove for 25 cents.
In 2013, the Columbia River Crossing is not about relieving traffic congestion nor changing the above opening sentence. Both could be accomplished with a crossing somewhere in the Woodland, Washington/Columbia City, Oregon neighborhood.
The engineers could easily design a forward-looking path using highways 47 and 99 terminating near Salem or Eugene. Building that bridge and expanding the existing right-of-ways would surely cause long-term congestion relief and be far cheaper than $3 to $5 billion for the CRC bridge.
Jerry A. Lund
VANCOUVER
