Vancouver Land Bridge
Confluence of the Columbia River and the Klickitat Trail
Vancouver, Washington

"The land bridge is a real link connecting back to the Klickitat Trail, Lewis and Clark, and the development of the Northwest. It completes a circle that's been broken."

—Johnpaul Jones

European and Native American cultures once converged at this Columbia River site, where the Hudson’s Bay Company stood as the first European trading post in the Pacific Northwest. Lewis and Clark camped here, and Fort Vancouver was built here 20 years later. Today, the site features an earth-covered pedestrian bridge that arcs over State Route 14, reconnecting historic Fort Vancouver with the Columbia River, which helped extend the fort’s influence from Mexico to Alaska and across the Pacific Ocean.

Learn about the site’s indigenous plants as you walk along the land bridge, which leads you up to a grand view of the river and the surrounding mountains. From the south, walk under the land bridge’s Welcome Gate, designed by Native American artist Lillian Pitt. Two cedar canoe panels, each adorned with a cast-glass sculpture of a Chinook woman’s face, evoke the site’s role as a historic tribal crossroads as well as a point of contact between European and Native people.

The artwork

Vancouver Land Bridge

Designed by Seattle architect Johnpaul Jones, this 40-foot-wide, earth-covered pedestrian bridge, lined with indigenous plants and Native basket weavings, reconnects historic Fort Vancouver with the Columbia River waterfront, which will feature a “treaty table” designed by Maya Lin.

Timeline

The site was dedicated August 23, 2008, with a festive inaugural walk across the land bridge followed by remarks from Maya Lin and the site architect, Johnpaul Jones, of Seattle.

Project Partners

Construction of the $12.25 million project is a partnership of Confluence Project members, the National Park Service, the City of Vancouver and the Washington State Department of Transportation, and made possible through federal, state and private funding.