It was designed by TriMet, the Portland metropolitan area's regional transit authority, for its MAX Orange Line light rail passenger trains.

[2] Tilikum Crossing has its western terminus in the city's South Waterfront area, and stretches across the river to the Central Eastside district.

[6] In the 21st century, these two industrial zones have been evolving into mixed residential and commercial neighborhoods, and new transit accommodations are required by the growing populations.

Both districts, however, are limited by antiquated road infrastructure that was deemed incapable of handling the increased traffic that could be expected from a conventional automobile bridge.

The west "landing" is midway between the Marquam and Ross Island Bridges, and the east landing is just north of Southeast Caruthers Street, with the east approach viaduct reaching the surface at the west end of Sherman Street,[2] which the tracks follow to a new Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) MAX station located near an existing Portland Streetcar station and the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.

Although the planned MAX Orange Line was the impetus for construction of the bridge, the structure also carries TriMet buses, the Portland Streetcar Loop Service and emergency vehicles, and is open for public use by bicyclists and pedestrians.

Lin International (TYLI), Engineer of Record on the Tilikum Crossing project, designed the distinctive, 180-foot-tall (55 m), pentagonal shaped stay-cable towers as the bridge's focal point.

The 780-foot-long (240 m) main span deck is separated into a 31-foot-wide (9.4 m) transitway between the tower legs to accommodate two lanes of track and two flanking multi-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists.

Tilikum Crossing is the first bridge in the U.S. to use the Freyssinet multi-tube saddle design, which allows each cable to run continuously from the deck, through the top of the tower and back down to the other side.

The project received required approval from both the Portland and Milwaukie city councils and Oregon's Metro regional governmental agency in 2008.

[2] As part of testing the signaling and overhead catenary systems, MAX and streetcar vehicles first ran across the bridge under their own power on January 21, 2015.

[33] The Tilikum name also references the pervasive use of Chinook Jargon in Portland’s first half century in the frequent trade interactions between pioneers and Native Americans.

After the public was invited to suggest names for the bridge in the summer of 2013,[35][36] the favorite choice of participants was, by an overwhelming margin, street musician Kirk Reeves.

[45] In addition to their practical use in generating power, the turbines were described by the agency as supportive of the bridge's overall "sustainability" theme and "fun to look at", and were described by the Portland Tribune as "whimsical".