PORTLAND-1
(Last updated 2/8/08)
Oregon City (about 15 miles south of
Portland) was founded by John McLoughlin, factor of the Hudsons
Bay Company, in 1829; it was the first incorporated city west
of the Mississippi, and served as the capital of the Oregon Territory.
Located outside Oregon City on Abernathy Green (a meadow behind
the house of the first governor of Oregon Country, and originally
the end of the Barlow Road), the "Big Wagons" (left)
of the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center (1995) describe
the journey of the pioneers from Missouri to Oregon and the history
of the Pacific Northwest in two theaters and an exhibit hall.
Oregon City's free 10-story Municipal Elevator (right), one of
only four in the world, was built in 1955; its concrete tower
replaced the wooden structure (1915; initially water-powered)
that had connected the city's lower business district with the
residential area on the 90-ft high basalt bluff behind it for
the previous 40 years.
The Willamette Falls Locks (left),
still in use after more than 125 years, consist of a canal, a
series of 4 consecutive locks (each with a 10-ft lift), plus a
guard lock, built to bypass the 40-ft high horseshoe falls that
blocks navigation on the Willamette River ca. 17 miles upstream
from its mouth. Opened on New Years' Day in 1873, and modernized
in 1915 after being purchased by the Federal government (when
the Army Corps of Engineers assumed responsibility for their operation),
the locks quickly became the key to transport in the Willamette
Valley. During their peak use period from the 1950s to the early
1970s, more than 2 million tons of goods passed thru the locks
each year; the downstream lock and exit canal (right), with the
arch of the Oregon City Bridge (1922; designed by Conde B. McCullough)
in the background
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