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Most visitors add Downtown Portland/Skidmore, Old Town, Portland Classical Chinese Garden, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), and Oregon Zoo to their itinerary. Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon, and county seat of Multnomah County. Portland straddles the ... more »
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Berry Botanic Garden Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden Elk Rock Gardens of the Bishop's Close End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center Fort Vancouver International Rose Test Garden Japanese Garden Museum of the Oregon Territory Oaks Amusement Park Oregon Historical Society Oregon Maritime Museum Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) Oregon Zoo Pioneer Courthouse Square Pittock Mansion Portland Art Museum Portland Children's Museum Portland Classical Chinese Garden Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) Portland Saturday Market Portland Trail Blazers Sternwheeler Columbia Gorge The Grotto Tom McCall Waterfront Park World Forestry Center Museum
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Airports Most visitors add Downtown Portland/Skidmore, Old Town, Portland Classical Chinese Garden, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), and Oregon Zoo to their itinerary.
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon, and county seat of Multnomah County. Portland straddles the Willamette River immediately south of its confluence with the Columbia River. it is the third largest city in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
The population of Portland is estimated to be 556,370 as of July 1, 2005, and that of the surrounding metropolitan area (MSA) is approximately 2 million (the 24th largest in the United States).
Portland is known as "The City of Roses" or "Rose City". The first known reference to Portland as "The City of Roses" was made by visitors to an Episcopal Church convention held in 1888. This nickname quickly grew in popularity after the Lewis and Clark centennial exposition where Mayor Harry Lane suggested that the city needed a "festival of roses" The first Portland Rose Festival was held two years later in 1907. Its climate is ideal for growing roses, and the city has many rose gardens, including the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. Other nicknames for the city of Portland include "Stumptown", "Bridgetown" (due to its numerous bridges), "Puddletown" (due to the weather), and "River City" (due to its proximity to the Willamette and Columbia Rivers), "PDX" (after the city's airport code) and, "P-town".
The Portland metropolitan area is located within the Willamette Valley, which follows the Willamette River and the I-5 Corridor. The valley consists of suburban municipalities sprawled around patches of farmland farther south. The further north you travel, towards Portland, the thicker the population density becomes. The vast majority of Oregon's population lives in the Willamette Valley. Interstate 5 bisects the valley and a significant number of commuters travel the I-5 Corridor daily.
The Portland metropolitan area has the typical transportation services common to major U.S. cities, though Oregon's emphasis on proactive land-use planning and transit-oriented development within the urban growth boundary means that commuters have multiple well-developed options.
In fact, Portland is well-known for its comprehensive public transportation system. TriMet operates most of the region's buses and the Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX, light rail system, which connects the city and suburbs. 5th and 6th avenues are the Portland Transit Mall, an exclusive bus-only right-of-way running north/south through downtown.
For the most part, Portland's streets are arranged in a traditional grid-like pattern, with a few diagonal streets connecting various sections of the city and suburbs, and numerous bridges across the Willamette and Columbia rivers.
I-5 connects Portland with the Willamette Valley, Southern Oregon, and California to the south and with Washington to the north. I-405 forms a loop with I-5 around the central downtown area of the city and I-205 is a beltway on the east side which connects to the Portland International Airport. US 26 supports commuting within the metro area and continues to the Pacific Ocean westward and Mount Hood and Central Oregon eastward. US 30 has a main, bypass and business route through the city extending to Astoria, Oregon to the west; through Gresham, Oregon, and the eastern exurbs, and connects to I-84, traveling towards Boise, Idaho.
Airport
Portland's main airport is Portland International Airport, located about 20 minutes by car (40 minutes by MAX) northeast of downtown.
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Portlanders have other transportation alternatives. The Portland Streetcar operates from the southern waterfront, through Portland State University north to nearby homes and shopping districts. The city is particularly supportive of urban bicycling and has been recognized by the League of American Bicyclists among others for its network of paths and other bicycle-friendly services. Car sharing through Flexcar is also available to residents of the city and some inner suburbs. The new Portland Aerial Tram will connect the South Waterfront district on the Willamette River and the Oregon Health & Science University campus on Marquam Hill above. Construction of the tram is scheduled for completion in December 2006.
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The Clearing
Portland started as a spot known as "The Clearing", which was on the banks of the Willamette River about halfway between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. In 1843, William Overton saw great commercial potential for this land, but lacked the funds required to file a land claim. He struck a bargain with his partner Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts: for 25¢, Overton would share his claim to the 640-acre (2.6 km²) site.
Overton later sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. Pettygrove and Lovejoy both wished to name the new city after his own home town; this was decided with a coin toss, which Pettygrove won.
Willamette River
Portland's location at the navigational head of the Willamette River gave it an advantage over nearby ports, and it grew quickly. By 1850 Portland had approximately 800 inhabitants, a steam sawmill, a log cabin hotel, and a newspaper, the Weekly Oregonian.
Portland was the major port in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 19th century, until the 1890s, when Seattle's deepwater harbor was connected to the rest of the mainland by rail, affording an inland route without the treacherous navigation of the Columbia River.
* Portland's climate is temperate and seasonal. The average rainfall ranges between approximately 40 to 45 inches per year depending on location. Portland averages 155 days with measureable precipitation a year. Although it lies in the Marine West Coast climate zone, Portland shows many characteristics of a Mediterranean climate. The city has mild wet winters, and warm, dry summers.
The summer months (June through September) mark the driest period, averaging no more than one inch of rain per month, but it is not uncommon for summer months to receive little or no precipitation. November through April is the rainy season, with 80% of the total annual rainfall occurring in those months. Winter low temperatures hover around 35 °F (2 °C), and summer highs average around 80 °F (27 °C), however summer heat waves with temperatures exceeding 100 °F (38 °C) do occur on occasion. But for the most part, the Portland summers are very pleasant with abundant sunshine. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Portland was -3 °F (-19 °C), set on February 2, 1950. Portland recorded a record high temperature of 107 °F (42 °C) numerous times, and temperatures of 100 °F (38 °C) have been recorded in each of the months from May through September.
Temperature - Yearly Average
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* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
