[pdx_history] One Cool Portland History Thing

...glimpses of Portland landscapes and maps from the past, courtesy of the City of Portland Office of Transportation (COPOOT).

The main Transportation history page is here. Almost forty subpages, each containing a revealing snapshot or map of Portland back almost to the beginning. Amongst my favorites:

• You think rush hour on the Sunset is bad now? Think about what it was when it looked like this (ca. 1896).
• Portland, East Portland, and Albina in 1866-note the interesting orientation of the map.
• This early map of the Woodlawn area illustrates why they needed to rationalize the street names-that one in the middle marked "Columbia Avenue" is what we today call Dekum Street, and duplicates todays SW Columbia Street. Not just that, but it's a gorgeous map. Just look at all the strange street names...
  
• You don't have to run to "jog"...and there's more than one way to look at it.
• Mass transit has been a part of the Rose City for a loooong time...
• Mr. Ladd's angular Addition...with some more old street name pattern examples.
• When they punched the Minnesota Freeway through. Today we just call it I-5 North.

I could, of course, go on forever. But that would ruin your fun. Check out my faves and hopscotch up and down the contents, or just go to the main page and go at it chronologically.

Your tax dollars at work, people!