U.S. 101: The Astoria Bridge Crossing
From Fort Clatsop and Astoria across the four-mile Astoria–Megler Bridge to Dismal Nitch, Middle Village, Chinook and Cape Disappointment at the Columbia bar.
The Route at a Glance
US-101 begins the crossing at Fort Clatsop, the replica post in the spruce south of Astoria, and runs north across Youngs Bay into town. The Astoria Column is a short climb up Coxcomb Hill from the highway, and from its deck the rest of the drive is laid out below: the river's mouth, the bridge across it and the low Washington shore.
Cars crossed here by ferry from 1926, and the ferries took half an hour when they ran and did not run in bad weather. Work on a bridge began in November 1962. It opened to traffic on July 29, 1966, the night after the last ferry run, and Governors Mark Hatfield and Dan Evans cut the ribbon on August 27 in front of more than 30,000 people. At 21,474 feet it is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America, and it closed the last gap in US-101. Tolls paid for it and came off on December 24, 1993, more than two years early.
The bridge lands at Point Ellice. A mile or so east on SR-401, the Dismal Nitch rest area stands where the ferry landing was. On November 10, 1805, a storm drove the Corps of Discovery off the river and pinned it, soaked, against this shore until the wind dropped on the 15th and the canoes got around the point. Clark called the cove that dismal little nitch, and historians still argue over exactly where along it they camped.
West of the bridge the highway passes Middle Village–Station Camp, on the river side, and the coast-artillery post at Fort Columbia on Chinook Point a little beyond it, then runs through Chinook and around Baker Bay to Ilwaco. From there SR-100 climbs onto Cape Disappointment, with the lighthouse and the bar below.
The whole drive is about 25 miles and fifty minutes without stops. Cape Disappointment and Fort Columbia are Washington state parks and need a Discover Pass; Fort Clatsop is a national park site with its own fee.
The Drive, Stop by Stop
4 stops along the route, in driving order from Fort Clatsop, Oregon to Cape Disappointment, Washington.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let U.S. 101: The Astoria Bridge Crossing do what it does best.
← Explore more of Open Road Guide