The Morrison

Vista Bridge

A.k.a. "Suicide Bridge," Vista Bridge is apparently a favorite topic of Portland bloggers and photographers. The scenery and design are both hard to resist, to be sure. I don't know about the other part. Anecdotes say that there have been suicide prevention signs spotted at either end (I didn't notice them, but that's not to say they weren't there) and that there was unsightly netting raised along the rails in the mid 20th century. I hear Palahniuk likes to tell ghost stories about this place and the sad stories surrounding it.

What I do know is that it's a remnant of the old streetcar system that used to ferry Portlanders past Portland Heights and up to Council Crest and its destination amusement park. My favorite story I've seen so far about this line contains the following paragraph:
"The line opened on February 22, 1890 after operators received a brief training from San Francisco workers. The first accident on the line occurred just two days later. When the car gained speed unexpectedly, the freshly trained crew jumped from the car in panic, leaving the three passengers to fend for themselves. Luckily, the passengers escaped with only minor injuries."
The entire article (and a photo of a piece of the wooden trolley track further up in the hills) can be found here

I know we have those snazzy new European streetcars linking the South Waterfront to Nob Hill now, but I also think they're missing a certain sense of adventure.

There's a beautiful post at another blog about the Vista Bridge here.

After a chilly afternoon rain in Westmoreland Park

These guys probably don't know it, but this swampland cum brickyard cum dairy cum airstrip cum city park was one of the many local designs by Joseph Jacobberger still affecting the way we see Portland today.

http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=852&action=ViewPark

Rawr

Since I've seen three of these curbside dinosaur gardens scattered around the city now, I'm starting to wonder if it's a Portland phenomenon...

Who can make the sun rise?

Architectural Heritage Center

Founded by the same two guys--Jerry Bosco and Ben Milligan-- who once owned the building housing The Pied Cow on Belmont (very yummy brie and apple plate there!) and the Queen Anne directly behind it, the Architectural Heritage Center is a direct result of these gentlemen's vision of the past. Portland's historical architecture was falling fast to development and generally unappealing apartment buildings throughout the mid 20th century. It's a story told too often in cities across the globe: slow-earning heritage sacrificed for "progress". Thankfully, Bosco and Milligan scrambled to collect as many treasures as possible from condemned buildings all around the city. Most of the contents of the storerooms of finials, windows, and statues they must have accumulated have evolved into the Architectural Heritage Center, now housed on SE Grand in what might be one of the oldest commercial buildings in the neighborhood.

Also, they provide a great place to escape the rain for a while on a chilly Saturday morning. :)

They run occasional public tours and walks--maybe I'll find myself on one someday soon! Below is a link to their homepage:

http://www.visitahc.org/ (weirdly, I can't seem to get Blogger to hotlink it, so happy copying & pasting)

There's an entire room of doorknobs and related hardware...

Portland Patchwork seen through the drizzle (w/ Sat. Market tent at the bottom!)

We are a tangle of bridges and water.

Another interesting detail learned today: this isn't limestone or anything quite so natural, but the waste dumped from concrete trucks as they were building the Morrison Bridge (directly behind the photographer).

I've always lived in railroad and river towns. SE 1st& Yamhill

Apparently, Miller Paint was created by a local who realized East Coast Paint just wasn't going to cut it here.

"Seattle and San Francisco were founded by people looking for gold; Portland, by people searching for Eden."-- Terrence O'Donnell

SW Taylor and 2nd

Hollywood Theatre

Da Vinci Middle School

Mecca for the musically inclined (and on Spin's list of the top indie record stores in the US!)

Love note to Portland

Just what we need, another blog.

But I've been inundating my Facebook friends with photos lately...well, truly, ever since I joined. The theory is that the more I advertise the wealth of the PDX world, the more that my friends and family will want to come visit.

Now it's starting to seem like a good idea to have a place to centralize it all-- the photos, the quotes, the observations, maybe even the poems.

Lately, I've been obsessively working my way through Laura Foster's book Portland City Walks. Many of the recent photos I have are from those treks--but many aren't. I've lived in PDX for a decade now, and the walks are opening up hidden corners I never knew about, as well as making me slow down to see in a different way the parts I already thought I knew.

But as easy as it would be to wax poetic about all the ways this city constantly surprises, enchants, and at times infuriates me, I don't want to write an essay here. I just want a place to collect the Portland pieces of my life. Perhaps the essay will come later.