On Highway 97 the state line between Washington is in the centre of the Columbia River. There are signs on the bridge marking the state line, but one cannot stop on the bridge, so we had to try and grab pics on the fly. We even caught a rainbow in one of the pics.
Opened in 1962, the bridge was a toll bridge until 1975, at which time, it is assumed, it had paid its dues. A steel through-truss bridge, it is 2,567 ft (783m) in length with 75 feet of clearance below. The builder was Paul Jarvis Inc. of Seattle.
The bridge was named in honor of
Samuel Hill, a prominent businessman of the immediate area. A businessman and lawyer, he became an advocate of good roads, in spite of a history with the Great Northern Railway. As a result, Washington was the recipient of the first paved road in the Pacific Northwest, which he built himself at a cost of $100,000. Hill was also the builder of the "Stonehenge" WWI Memorial, the first one erected in America.
Hill bought up land in what was the settlement of Columbia (or Columbus) and named it
Maryhill. His intention was to create a Quaker community, but he was the sole Quaker ever to inhabit Maryville. He began building a mansion at Maryhill, but it was unfinished at his death. It is now the Maryhill Museum.