14 November 2005

[pdx_geography, history] The Mount Hood Freeway

A bit of the past, giving a glimpse of the future that could have been.

When the Mount Hood Freeway was being debated in the Portland community, government, and media arena, I was but a neat thing in elementary school in Silverton (motto: Because Salem doesn't have Gresham to look down on). Even then, at that age, I found anything Portland fascinating, and the idea of a freeway leading to Mount Hood just fired me up.

Of course, I didn't understand the difference between naming something after something and actually having it as a destination; when I was that young, I thought the Ross Island Bridge went to Ross Island, and I wanted to go there because I like bridges and I loved islands.

Back to the subject though; at the forums on the SkyscraperPage (http://www.skyscraperpage.com) a heavy regular going by the forum name pdxstreetcar (mad props, if you all please) went to the PSU library and found some old proposal graphics. It's a look back to the time when it was thought the freeway would solve everything, and that a dog of project would squeak by if you just threw a transit station or community center in.

View the forum thread here.

1 comment:

stan said...

I think about that freeway every time I cross the Marquam Bridge, noting those little lane spurs that veer off into the air, looking like severed limbs, as though the freeway Lost Them In The War.