The Garden At South Waterfront

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There is a lovely park just off the circle where Montgomery becomes River Drive in the Riverplace nabe; it has lilyponds and colorful flowers and all sorts of botanical niceness.

It makes for great photographs of irises with this great freeway bridge in the background, I'll tell you that much.

I've got a couple of others to share in episodes to follw.

You Can Get There From Here

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This is the big ol' sign on the Marquam Bridge which, if you're travelling northbound on I-5, tells you where you can take it, pal.

It's a good and actually useful piece of trivia to know that the exit tying I-5 and I-84 together is at I-5 MP 300. That makes it quick work to figure how far and how long: the first exit into Salem, at Chemawa Rd at the edge of Keizer, is at exit 260, which means a little less than an hour south. The last Oregon exit on I-5, exit 308, is less than ten minutes north, except during rush hour, when it's an hour and an half. 

And California is 300 miles away, backthataway. 

One destination cited is The Dalles. The Dalles is one of just a handful of towns in the USA that begin with "The", amongst them, The Woodlands, TX; The Village, OK; The Plains, VA; and The Hell Did I End Up Here, NV. 

I may have made one of these up.

Follow me for more geographical tips.

The Bridges Of Multnomah County

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A look north, downstream of the Willamette, showing the several bridges that unite the core of Portland. The big one, up front, is the Marquam Bridge, the one that carries I-5 over the river, and the trusses of the Hawthorne is clearly visible, but even though one can see bits of the Morrison, Burnside, and Steel, they obscure each other and you can see only hints of them.

I've always adored the Marquam. It's got a graceful arch to it and the way it gracefully swings between the west bank and the east bank, doing its job without bragging, and largely unappreciated for it. 

But I think it's gorgeous.

Downtown Portland Sans Tillkum Crossing, April 2010

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I wasn't thinking of or looking for another picture of Portland's skyline or any sort of throwback action but I was inspired to go back and look through some very old photos ... I mean ViviCam 3705-years-old ... and I couldn't hold back from sharing this.

This is a photo taken in April 2010, on a gray, misty day, of the downtown Portland skyline as seen from the very east end of the Ross Island Bridge. It is notable for what isn't there: there are a number of buildings that are here now that aren't there then, but the big thing that isn't there would be down in front now.

The thing that's missing is, of course, the Tillikum Crossing bridge, which would be between the photographer's POV here and the Marquam Bridge. This is one of those photos I referred to earlier: there are locations that are no longer possible to get the same photo because of the development that has happened here in the last 20 years, things that have fundamentally changed the look and atmosphere of the Rose City. Buildings that now exist where once there was open space, and massive new constructions that have interposed themselves between a still-accessible space and the thing one once went to that place to observe.

I'm thinking it's past time I got an updated downtown skyline photo. Not just of my favorite angle, from the top deck of that bridge there in the photo, but also an update of this one, from the east end of the Ross Island Bridge.

The Blue Heart Of Portland

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Looking south from the vicinity of the Steel Bridge is looking up-river along the Willamette, in the reach that extends through Portland's veriest city center. There are many bridges and so very many new buildings, most of which you see in this shot did not exist fifteen years ago (again, same planet, different world ... Saint Ursula was prescient in a way).

On the right, downtown; on the left, the burgeoning central east side. Going from foreground to background we see, in whole, the Burnside Bridge, and in parts: the Morrison Bridge, the Hawthorne Bridge, the Marquam Bridge arching above them all, and if you look sharp, one of the towers of the Tilikum Crossing. 

And this is Portland's Blue Heart. 

The Marquam Bridge from The Portland Tram, 2008

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Now one might have credibly argued that perhaps I should have grouped this with the last three, in as much as they were all taken from the Portland Aerial Tram on the same day in the same year, thence the thematic connection.

But the Marquam Bridge holds a special place in my heart. It does its job, day in and day out, with no nonsense or fanfare about it, everyone depends on it, and nobody sees the inherent beauty in it. For anyone who does their thing because people rely on it even though nobody appreciates its positive qualities much, this bridge could be your patron saint.

The Marquam Bridge From Terwilliger Blvd

3719SW Terwilliger Blvd, which extends in a parkway from its origin at the intersection of SW 6th Avenue and Sheridan Street at the north end of Duniway Park to George Himes Park in the Hillsdale area, offers quite a few of Portland's surfeit of gorgeous viewpoint opportunities, which is a natural, as at some points along that throughfare are over 500 feet in elevation and face the city on the east face of Portland's posh West Hills - as well as welcome shade and about 15 degress Fahrenheit off the seasonably, distastefully warm mid-July Oregon weather.

And here is just one.

This is an angle on the Marquam Bridge, the span that combines I-5 and I-405 at the west end (the one closest to our viewpoint) and takes them over the Willamette to access points north via I-5 and east via I-84. Close by those soaring ramps over the river on the opposite side of the Willamette is the southern part of the central east side's business area; notable immediately above and to the left of the center of the shot is the Weatherly Building, at the corner of SE Morrison St and Grand Avenue. Immediately to the right of that is a building with a red brick exterior that only existed since about this time last year; indeed, the practiced visual Portlander should immedately see a number of buildings that have fundamentally changed the nature of the area.

In the upper left distance there is the tower of The Fontaine Apartements, a high-rise which stakes out the eastern extent of the Lloyd District.

Beyond these, blending to urban forest, the inner east side of Portland. Beyond that, Cascade foothills.

A view they can't charge you for ... not yet, anyway.

Bridges Through Bridges On The East Bank Of The Willamette

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Let's go back the air of 2014 to see what we were doing then.

Me and the Brown Eyed Girl went down to the east bank of the Willamette, which is probably a place we should visit a little more often; you get great views of the west bank and the downtown skyline is always photogenic.

This time I decided to let the sightlines and points of view do the work for me. The result is that looking through the approaches to the Marquam Bridge at the Hawthorne Bridge and the Justice Center across the river becomes something that is at once identifiable and abstract, and since I was able to get the picture with no other people in it it actually becomes a little other-worldly.

No other large town on the Willamette gives one a view like this. Portland seems to belong to its river more than Salem and Eugene and Albany and Corvallis do.

I can't be the only one for whom sightlines in this town inspire one to wrought indulgence in text. Ah, well.

[pdx] Portland 2004 vs Portland 2016: Compare and Contrast

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Naturally, having snapshots from back in the day and now currently, even if it's an unadvantageously-lit first-pass, invite comparisons. Here are the two photos, side-by-side orothogonally:

Some comparisons kind of jump out at you. The red brick-colored building there in the front and center, 1 SW Columbia, has a new companion immediately to the right; it's a shiny block of ice now blocking the view of the US Courthouse (the building with the curved roofline); the area of horizon between the Wells Fargo Tower and the Portland Plaza (the two buildings closest to the left of frame) has partially been populated with some of the rash of new apartment towers populating old Portland. You can even see the top of Park Avenue West (it's directly to the left of the flag on top of 1 SW Columbia).

Number and name the changes, friends. Portland's evolving, no matter what we think of it. 

[pdx] Downtown Portland From Marquam Bridge, 2016

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In September, 2004, I snapped a picture of City Center Portland from the top deck of the Marquam Bridge, our city's link for I-5 over the Willamette River, south and east from the tall towers of downtown.

It's a wonderful view, but you can only get it, legally as far as I know, in a car travelling at freeway speed. What shoulder there is is perilously small.

The photo went a few places. Back in the day, Radical Russ Belville, who had a weekend show on KPOJ (A moment of silence, please and thank you) used it on his website. A local record-store themed bar opened with the photo on its posters.  Even Jefferson Smith's mayoral campaign of 2012 used it. It was my first real experience with something almost kinda sorta going viral.

There is an interesting commonality to all these uses, but I'll get to that in another post. Note to self.

Anyway, very recently it occurred to me that it's been almost 12 years since that photo was snapped. 12 YEARS, MY FRIENDS. That's three presidential administrations, people, and if you had a kid when that photo was taken, he or she'd be in middle school now. So it occurred to me that it might need an updating.

We tried it this last Sunday. This will serve a first-pass attempt, sadly, the light (as the viewer will note) is not quite bright enough, and certainly not at the level of the 2004 photo. Here it is:

I'll put it on the table right now, I did some photoshop primping in order to bring out the buildings that didn't get the benefit of the light they'd otherwise have had.

But this is Portland, 2016. Changing yet timeless, at once small and big, now the 26th largest city in the United States, and with a battle for its city air going on in more ways than one. Still my hometown.