Commentary: 97th anniversary of the opening of the Hood River Bridge was a palindrome date

In these 97 years, activity on the bridge and the bridge itself went through many transformations. The bridge that was once crossed mostly by people on foot and animals is now only crossed by vehicles. The bridge’s structure was also improved over this time period with additional changes.

Though the Hood River Bridge is almost 100 years old, it still serves a critical role in providing transportation to those who live around Hood River.

I’m very intrigued and fascinated by the antique and vintage appearance of the Hood River Bridge. It is indeed a historic treasure. Furthermore, I observed that the 97th anniversary of its opening, Dec. 9, 2021, is a palindrome date when expressed as 12/9/21.

A palindrome is a word, phrase, verse, sentence or number that reads the same backward or forward.

For this reason, I constructed the following numerical curiosities to draw more attention to this engineering masterpiece.

If the opening date anniversary number of the Hood River Bridge, namely 97, is expressed in base-8 number system, it equals 141, another palindrome.

Additionally, the opening date, Dec. 9, possess other palindromic properties: 12/9/21 is the 343rd day of 2021 and other non-leap years where 343 is a palindrome number.

Further, 343 is 7 x 7 x 7, a palindromic arithmetic expression. Also note that three 7’s put side by side as 777 is a lucky number.

Moreover, every year has 22 days left after Dec. 9 and 22 is also a palindrome.

If December 9 is expressed as 12/9 or simply as 129, 129 equals 3 x 43, another palindromic arithmetic expression.

On the other hand, if Dec. 9 is expressed as 12/09 or 1209, 1209 equals 13 x 3 x 31, another palindromic expression.

Additionally, if letters A through Z are assigned numbers 1 to 26, the sum of the letter numbers of Hood River Bridge equals 159 and 159 is 3 x 53.

Lastly, the 97th anniversary date 12/9/21 has another interesting numerical property: 12 + 9 = 21.

Happy Palindrome 97th Anniversary to the Hood River Bridge!

Aziz Inan is a professor of electrical engineering teaching in Donald P. Shiley School of Engineering at University of Portland and he can be reached at ainan@up.edu.