Student activists and supporters filled Southwest Madison Street from Southwest Fourth Avenue and across both eastbound lanes of the Hawthorne Bridge as part of the global climate strike Friday.

The event began at Terry Schrunk Plaza, where students from across the city met up after ditching class in Portland, Milwaukie and Beaverton.

Police closed vehicle traffic surrounding the plaza for at least one block on either side and dammed up a contingent of demonstrators ready to spill east on Madison at Second Avenue until he march permit took effect at noon.

At its height, the march stretched eight tenths of a mile, from the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge all the way across to the end of the bridge and down to the Eastbank Esplanade. That route was packed with peaceful, mostly youthful protesters.

In March, Portland Public Schools students rallied in front of district headquarters to demand officials adopt a climate curriculum promised by the school board three years prior. Months later, Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero’s budget included $200,000 to implement it.

Today, student activists across the state have their eyes on a larger prize: They want lawmakers in Salem and in county and municipal governments to adopt a Green New Deal, phasing out fossil fuel infrastructure and investing in renewable energy.

In Portland, they’re pushing local leaders to fully fund TriMet’s YouthPass program and deny permits to Zenith Energy, which has been receiving, shipping and storing tar sands crude.

And, as they did six months ago, students are walking out of class to make their case.

“My generation is going to have a massive crisis to deal with if we don’t do anything about these problems right now,” said Jaden Winn, a Lincoln High School junior and one of several organizers of the Rose City iteration of the global strike.

Hundreds of students rallied in downtown Portland in March. Organizers of Friday’s rally hope for as many to turn out and then some.

“I would love to see 10,000 people come out to advocate for climate justice,” Winn said.

Organizers have a permit for the march in downtown Portland and across the Hawthorne Bridge, Portland police said. But hey had told student organizers to keep marchers on the bridge’s sidewalks to they could keep the bridge will be open to vehicular traffic as usual.

Demonstrators said they plan to walk south on the Eastbank Esplanade and meet at OMSI for a climate festival featuring speeches from student leaders and local government officials.

Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty will take the stage at 4:30 p.m. Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted that he planned to join her.

In Beaverton, students plan to walk out of class and rally at city hall at 8:30 a.m. before joining the Portland demonstration. Demonstrators in Salem will meet at the state Capitol at 1 p.m.

Most school districts in the metro area will excuse students who have given their teachers and coaches advance notice of their plans to walk out. In Portland, student athletes who walk out will be allowed to compete over the weekend.

In addition to students at Oregon’s public schools, colleges and universities, employees of several businesses are staging their own walkouts to protest their companies’ ties to fossil fuels. CBS reports that some 1,500 Amazon workers are expected to strike, as well as employees at Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Patagonia stores will also shutter for the day as the company lends the heft of its brand to climate walkouts across the world. Ben & Jerry’s stores will open later than usual, as well.

Here are the climate walkouts and rallies planned across the state on Friday: