Posts Tagged ‘history’

Tweet On this Independence Day, let’s take a look at the early days of Portland, how it got settled and how it consolidated three small cities into one large one to compete with arch nemesis Seattle. In 1880, Portland was still a small railroad town with only 17,000 residents on the west side of the Willamette and a few hundred more scattered on the east side. It was more of a country town than a bustling city. The population was a mix of Europeans and Chinese. But by the turn of the 20th century, Portland made a place for itself…

Continue reading

Tweet Not unlike women in Saudi Arabia that are banned from riding their bikes in public today, at one time women in the US faced the same kind of resistance to biking as well. The first drop frame bicycles to make it easier for women in skirts to ride came about in the 1890s. But at the same time, male doctors decried the overexertion to delicate female constitutions that was caused by bicycling. And women who rode bikes were often depicted as a little bit crazy and wild. Bicycles were even accused of deflowering younger women, causing spontaneous orgasms, encouraging…

Continue reading

Tweet The Steel Bridge is my favorite bridge in Portland. Did you know that it was built to make it easier for the railroad to get across the Willamette River? Did you know there was a first version of the Steel Bridge built about 20 years before the one we see today? Did you know that the original bridge was the first on the West Coast to use steel for its primary structure? Here are 10 fun facts about the making of the Steel Bridge we know and love today: 1. Before the Steel Bridge was constructed, crossing the Willamette…

Continue reading