Although it’s unclear where Bridge Sub originally stood, on May 2, 1911, The Columbian reported: “Actual work on the construction of the sub-station of the Mount Hood Railway & Power company will commence tomorrow morning.” The work was to be finished “post haste,” according to the story, and meanwhile, “the engineers of the company who have been in the city for the past few days have made the necessary surveys for the contemplated lines, and the cable which is to cross the river from the Oregon side, the site being selected at the old ferry slip, east of the present landing of the ferry.
“Manager Groo and his company will be able to give out power by the first of July.”
That schedule was apparently too optimistic. From the July 24 Columbian: “The Mt. Hood sub-station … is practically completed at the present time and the machinery will soon be installed.” Apparently, the building cost $12,000, “exclusive of the machinery.”
It’s not clear when or even if they turned on the juice. But for some reason, it didn’t work out.
“Moving Concrete Building Proves Herculean Task,” The Columbian reported less than two years later, on April 14, 1913, a year to the date after the Titanic sunk.