The first Interstate Bridge connecting Portland and Vancouver opened more than 90 years ago, on Valentine’s Day, 1917.

The next morning, I suspect, someone’s pocket got picked near the bridge in Vancouver, and a Gabby Hayes-type curmudgeon slammed his hat on the ground and snarled, “Dag-nabbit! I told you that this dang bridge would be the ruination of Vancouver! Look how it’s spreading crime into our town.”

Later that day, Gabby founded the Vancouver chapter of the Hounds of Whinerville, who for the ensuing 91 years have fought transportation improvements in Vancouver’s community.

I thought of Gabby on the afternoon of March 2, as I stood at the Sen. Mark Hatfield Station in Hillsboro, waiting for my return trip on the MAX Blue Line to Gresham, 33 miles away. And I chuckled as I read a Hatfield quote on a plaque: “Light rail reflects a vision for the stewardship of our environment in a time of extraordinary growth.”

Poor ol’ Gabby didn’t have much of a vision, or he would’ve known that the Interstate 5 Bridge (with the second span that opened in 1958) would become a major cog in the West Coast’s main transportation corridor, and in 2008 would need a replacement. It is a similar vision that guides the growth of Portland’s light rail system. No, ridership is not impressively high, although according to the American Public Transit Association the MAX lines’ daily ridership of 104,300 ranks sixth in the nation behind the light rails of Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Philadelphia. And the return on investment (more than $3 billion overall, mostly federal funds) has yet to materialize.

And no, congestion in Portland has not been reduced by the growth of light rail (although you have to wonder how bad congestion would be without it). But MAX lines represent a vision of what public transportation will become in the next century, long after Gabby’s grandkids have died of terminal grumpiness.

On my return trip to Gresham, as an armchair engineer who knows nothing about engineering, I was eager to get off the Blue Line at the Washington Park Station, in the middle of the three-mile Robertson Tunnel, and take the 260-foot elevator ride to the surface, near the entrance to the Oregon Zoo.

That was when I realized the advantages of Portland’s light-rail system. Designed largely to move commuting workers, it also serves as a cheap, convenient and safe way to travel to the zoo, to baseball games at PGE Park, to basketball games at the Rose Garden, to Portland International Airport, to the Expo Center, to the Lloyd Center mall, to cultural and crafts events downtown and to numerous other stops on the 33-mile Blue Line, the 25.5-mile Red Line and the 7.2-mile Yellow Line.

I also thought about the vision represented by two current construction projects: a 6.5-mile Green Line along Interstate 205 from Gateway Transit Center to Clackamas Town Center and a 1.8-mile route downtown from Union Station to Portland State University. More consternation for Gabby’s descendants, of course, but for the rest of us, a glimpse into the future.

Here in Vancouver, County Commissioner Steve Stuart tells me that an extension of the Yellow Line across the river, through downtown and east on McLoughlin Boulevard to Clark College, would cost $750 million and could be paid for entirely by the Federal Transit Administration. The line would need $2.8 million annually for operation and maintenance. One plan for securing that funding is a one-tenth of 1 percent increase in the sales tax (1 cent on a $10 purchase) solely within the Vancouver city limits, if approved by voters.

But that strategy is a long way off.

When my trip ended at 5:54 p.m. in Gresham, I gazed toward the sunset and reflected on the immense public expense of what I had just experienced. Then I began to think about the next century. Gabby spun in his grave.