Sometimes oblongs do work better

Even the Queen of Squares admits sometimes only a oblong will do; and the photo above is a case in point. The bridge didn’t look right squared up close. It deserved an oblong.

Hawthorne Bridge is one of twelve that cross the Willamette River in Portland. It is a truss bridge with a vertical lift. Built in 1910, it is the oldest bridge of its type still in operation in the United States. It is painted in green with red trim, but it was once yellow-ochre. Now that colour would have been perfect for a golden rectangle but the above image is not that shape either.

So here’s a square to make sure I meet the main rule of the Squares Challenge.

The squared eyed members of the Squares Gang will have spotted it is not just the shape of my second image that looks different, the content looks different too. That’s because whilst the bridge pictured is a truss bridge with a vertical lift crossing the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon it is not the same bridge.

This is Steel Bridge, built in 1912 and it replaced a 1888 double-deck swing bridge of the same name. As you can see it still has a double-deck but they are now moved with vertical lifts. On the lower deck are pedestrians, cyclists and trains and on the upper deck light rail and road traffic. Amazingly each deck moves independently of the other, and the lower one telescopes into the higher one when the lift is fully raised. Now that’s impressive geometry!