Bridge of the Gods and Cascade Locks
Bridge of the Gods, Cascade Locks, OR
Columbia River Gorge, OR
A slender steel bridge carrying the Pacific Crest Trail across the Columbia River, named for a Native American legend of a natural land bridge, at a historic Gorge town where steamboats once locked around the rapids.
Where the Columbia River cuts its great gorge through the Cascade Mountains, a slim steel bridge leaps the water between Oregon and Washington. It carries a wonderful name, the Bridge of the Gods, borrowed from a Native American legend that told of a natural stone land bridge that once spanned the river here, a story with real roots in an ancient landslide that briefly dammed the Columbia. The modern bridge, built in the 1920s, honors that legend in steel.
It stands at Cascade Locks, a historic river town on the Oregon shore. Long before the bridge, this was a place of struggle with the river: fierce rapids once blocked steamboats here, until navigation locks were built to lift vessels around them. Today the rapids are gone, drowned by a downstream dam, but the old locks, the wide river, and the legendary bridge make this one of the most storied spots in the whole Columbia River Gorge, and the point where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the river on its long journey between Mexico and Canada.
What Guests Love
- Crossing the Columbia on a bridge with a legendary name
- Watching the wide river run between the steep walls of the Gorge
- The historic locks and the story of steamboats on the Columbia
- Standing where the Pacific Crest Trail meets the river
Worth Knowing
- The Bridge of the Gods is a narrow toll bridge with no pedestrian walkway, so enjoy it from the viewpoints and park in town
- Cascade Locks has riverside parks and a marine park where you can watch the river and passing boats
- Bonneville Dam, a few miles west, has free visitor centers and fish-viewing windows well worth a stop
- The Gorge is famously windy and can be rainy, so bring a layer even on a fine day
Details
Columbia River Gorge, OR
Learn about Bridge of the Gods and Cascade Locks
A bridge named for a legend
The Bridge of the Gods takes its name from a Native American legend of a great natural bridge of stone that once let people cross the Columbia dry-shod. Geologists have found the kernel of truth behind the story: centuries ago, an enormous landslide from the Gorge walls did dam the river here for a time, and its remnants formed the Cascades Rapids. The steel cantilever bridge, opened in 1926 and later raised when the dam flooded the rapids, keeps the old name alive.
Slender and functional, the bridge is a working toll crossing rather than a grand monument, but its setting and its story give it real magic. It is also famous among long-distance hikers as the spot where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Columbia, the lowest point on the entire route, a moment made even more familiar by its role in a well-known hiking memoir and film.
Cascade Locks and the tamed river
Cascade Locks is named for the navigation locks completed in the 1890s to lift steamboats around the treacherous Cascades Rapids, a great engineering feat of its day that finally opened the middle Columbia to reliable river traffic. When Bonneville Dam was built downstream in the 1930s, its reservoir drowned the rapids, and the old locks fell quiet, but they remain preserved in the town's riverside marine park.
Today the little town is an easy, pleasant stop, with parks along the water, a historic sternwheeler that still cruises the river in season, and grand views up and down the Gorge. A few miles west, Bonneville Dam welcomes visitors with free centers where you can watch salmon climb the fish ladders and peer at enormous white sturgeon, telling the ongoing story of people and this powerful river.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Columbia River Gorge
Bonneville Lock and Dam
About 5 miles west
A historic dam on the Columbia with free visitor centers, fish ladders where you can watch salmon climb, and a sturgeon pond.
Eagle Creek Trail
About 3 miles west
A famous Gorge waterfall trail blasted into the cliffs, passing Metlako Falls, Punch Bowl Falls, and more.
Multnomah Falls
About 15 miles west
Oregon's tallest and most famous waterfall, a 620-foot double cascade crossed by a graceful stone footbridge.