Waterfront Bridge Walks & Poetry July 22, 2007

Meets at NW 2nd & Everett on the covered steps of the Northwest Natural Building. Program concludes with lunch (extra $) at Dan & Louis Oyster Bar, the second oldest restaurant in Portland. Guest poet: Donna Henderson, of Monmouth, is the author of Transparent Woman (Howlet Press 1996), a finalist for the 1997 Oregon Book Award for Poetry. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and included in Literary Arts/TriMet's Poetry in Motion program. Her photography and mixed media artwork is regularly exhibited at the River Gallery in Independence, Oregon.

Sharon Wood Wortman, author of 'The Portland Bridge Book', leads this downtown waterfront tour to the largest mechanical structures in Oregon. Visit the tower & pit of the Morrison Bridge & meet a bridge operator. Test for synchronous vertical excitation, visit a National Parks Service bridge exhibit, learn how to cope with gephyrophobia (fear of bridges), take a short ride on MAX light rail, walk across a $2.5 million cantilevered sidewalk, & hear the latest poems of bridge walkers. See eight bridges in all--among them the oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the US, the longest tied-arch bridge in the world & a unique double-decker.

Official Website: http://www.portlandparks.org/register/Activities/ActivitiesCourseDetails.asp?aid=1068&cid=235278