Vintage Footage of Portland Traffic

{ PDX }

March 17, 2008

I’ve seen bazillions of old photos of Portland, especially on my photo trips to the Oregon Historical Society’s research library. What I haven’t seen before is footage like this, traffic surveys from 1939 that show familiar intersections with vintage cars ‘n folks. I find it fascinating, even though nothing happens.

Via Cafe Unknown.

6th & Washington

6th & Alder, with scary bicylce moment

12th & Burnside (E), still a messed up intersection–in color! 1939!

6th & Morrison, also in color

3 Comments

  1. tODD says:

    Wow, downtown was hopping with pedestrians! Also: left turns were chock full of danger back then. Or at least appear so to this denizen of the 21st century.

  2. Don Park says:

    fascinating footage! the lane dividers are solid lines. the electric trolley car is a nice reminder of what was and whats possible. there is so much car traffic! i guess 1939 is too late to see people on horseback.

  3. sharon says:

    Holy crap that is SO AWESOME!

    I’m forwarding on to all of my Portland history geek friends (and there are a lot of us.)

    I once found a 1950′s 20 minute video from the city of Portland about local bomb shelters and what to do in case of an attack….

    Not nearly as cool as those vids tho! So oooold.
    Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Scipio the Computer has deemed that these might be similar in content!

Recent Comments

How to make Humira injections hurt less

Newest comments regarding this post:

  • Susan said I had to switch from Remicade to Humira because my body suddenly decided it didn’t like the Remi anymore & I learned to spell anaphylaxsis. Too bad, it... (More)
  • Lise said Hi. What a great post, thank you. I had my 4th humira injection (pen) today for my PsA (diagnosed 2 years ago) and was feeling such a baby for my near-panic attack... (More)
  • lauren said Hello and thank you so much for posting this info! I just started Humira, with my first injections at the hospital two weeks ago. I only had 2 syringes, thank... (More)
  • M Corbett said I am not alone!!!!! Thank you everybody!!!!!! I have just had my sixth injection (pen) this evening. I promised myself this time I wouldn’t push my... (More)
  • Christine said Thank you so much for your help! Your ideas made tonight’s injection so much less painful! (More)
  • Bruce F said Glad I found this site. I was on Enbrel for plaque psoriasis for three years and it eventually stopped working, which is why I switched to Humira. Enbrel pen... (More)
Wonderful games with Caslon