Portland is located at the northern
end of the Willamette Valley, a rich and diverse agricultural region.
The long growing season and mild temperatures of the Willamette Valley are
favorable for a diversity of agricultural products. Due to the high
ground water level, irrigation is widely used to raise cannery crops, berries,
grass seed, and pastures.
City Layout - Four Quads
For a city that's split by a
river, Portland is surprisingly easy to navigate by car, bicycle, or foot.
The exception is traversing the West Hills as many of the streets curve
and wind. The town is laid out in quadrants--north and south are divided
by Burnside Street: east and west, by the Willamette River, which features
a network of ten breathtaking bridges. You can get a good picture by viewing
a Portland street map or try
the Metro Quad map.
Hills in the West
Flat Land in the East
Looking east from downtown Portland
(20 feet above sea level) you immediately notice Mt. Hood (11,235 feet -
about 40 miles from downtown), the Cascade Mountain Range, and the flat
landscape of the east side across from the Willamette River.
Looking west you notice the hills
and some of the houses - those not covered up by the greenery - that dominate
the view. You imagine yourself in a house looking over the city and
the mountains. Explore the east side more and you will encounter hilly
terrain in certain neighborhoods like Mt. Tabor. Traveling south into
Lake Oswego and West Linn, you also get into the hills.
Traveling west over the ridge
of hills on the west side, you dip into a flat valley. Once in the
Tualatin plains, looking west, your eyes will meet a gentle rising group
of hills called the Coastal Mountain Range. The plains lay in the Hillsboro-Forest
Grove-North Plains-Banks area of Washington County. The plains were
once the most important agricultural district in the circle around Portland.
In the 1830s Hudson' Bay Company employees from Fort Vancouver sometimes
drove cattle over the muddy passes of the West Hills to fatten on summer
grasses of the Valley. In the 1840s American wheat farmers pushed
aside the British cattle. Today, the Tualatin Plains is mostly communities
and industrial areas but crops still exist in a good share of the plains.
TopoZone
will allow you to explore the elevations of Portland. You will note
that within a mile of downtown heading west you are up to 500 feet.
Drive up the winding streets and you will reach heights of over 1,000 feet.
City of Bridges
Portland is often called Bridge
Town because ten bridges span the Willamette River. The bridges
of Portland are numerous and diverse. The structures, ranging in age
from 27 years to 90 years of age, represent a variety of construction types
including vertical lift spans, double-leaf Bascule drawspans, and the longest
tied arch span in the world. Andrew Hall's
Bridge Gallery displays all ten of the bridges on your screen.
The City of Roses becomes the
city of bicycles in early August each year as upwards of 12,000 people pulled
on brightly colored jerseys, clamped on helmets and grabbed cameras to join
in the annual Providence Bridge Pedal.
The event, extraordinary for
its route over eight of Portland's Willamette River bridges, draw Oregonians
and out-of-towners of all ages. Children in bike buggies, couples
on tandems and adults pedaling everything from sleek titanium racers to
one-speed cruisers filled the streets and bridges from early morning until
about noon.
Physical Features Impact Daily
Living
Natural, physical features and
climactic forces have considerable impact on the city, and on living in
the city. Portlanders are rarely troubled by the rain, they appreciate,
and delight in sunshine. Newcomers are heard to comment frequently on how
green it all is. On clear days we can see Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens,
Mt. Adams, and even Mt. Rainer.
Elevations
City of Portland
Portland Airport (northeast -
Columbia River): 20
Portland Waterfront (Willamette River): 30
Portland (City Hall): 70
Council Crest (southwest): 1,074
Mount Scott (southeast): 1,050
Sunset Highway (Sylvan): 750
Terwilliger (OHSU entrance): 315
Hollywood neighborhood: 200
Suburban Communities
Beaverton: 189
Damascus: 530
Estacada: 1,419
Gresham: 330
Hillsboro: 140
Lake Oswego (Mountain Park): 970
Lake Oswego (State Street): 100
Tigard: 66
Tigard (Bull Mountain): 711
Vancouver, Washington (Mill Plain Boulevard): 300
Vancouver, Washington (shipyards): 30
Distances
-
173 miles south of Seattle
-
639 miles north of San Francisco
-
250 miles from the California
border via I-5
-
45 minutes from Mt. Hood
-
45 minutes from the wine
country of the Willamette Valley
-
50 minutes from the spectacular
Columbia Gorge
-
About 90 minutes from the
picturesque Oregon Coast
