Online prank renames Portland bridge after ‘Trek’ captain Jean-Luc Picard
Published 11:59 am Tuesday, March 8, 2016
PORTLAND, Ore. — A new Portland bridge got a new name this week — at least on Google Maps.
KGW-TV reported that someone playing a prank Monday got the name switched from Tilikum Crossing to Jean-Luc Picard Wunder Crossing. Picard is, of course, a character from “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
The car-free span opened last September after a highly publicized name-the-bridge contest.
Google Maps spokeswoman Mara Harris declined to provide specifics about how the name got switched, telling the station that data “comes from a variety of authoritative public and commercial data sources, user contributions, and imagery references.”
Local officials asked Google Maps to restore the proper name.
