Quick quiz: How many of you know where Lovejoy Fountain is? To Google is to cheat.

Interesting Wall Street Journal report on the destruction of many, many Mazdas. Here in town. My favorite part is the airbag deployment!

If I could draw or paint or “do art” in some fashion it would probably mostly consist of a weird and concerning homage shrine to Portland’s Fremont Bridge, which, for some reason, I find to be pretty much the best thing I’ve ever seen.

The obsession started sometime in my late teens. The college years, the wandering, lone-wolf, mostly-lonely years wherein I had time to brood and draw bad sketches in black-bound notebooks. I started noticing the Fremont was easy to draw, that double bounce swoop. Plus, it was appealing. I liked standing underneath it. In middle school my marching band practiced under its east flanks. In the awful 2001-2002 times, when breathing even seemed a burden, I spent time under its left flanks taking photos.

Then I resorted to the Internet, which usually serves as a good gateway from “interest” to “stalking/obsession.” Fortunately the bridge is inanimate and has so far been kind enough not to press charges.

Why do I like it?

1. It’s very epic in proportion. It soars without effort.
2. It’s modernistic and unemphatic.
3. It has calming lines like Scandinavian furniture.
4. It’s unapologetic about its utility. It puts me in mind of Bauhaus in that sense.
5. Peregrine falcons nest atop it.

From work, at Cloud Four, all I have to do is swivel around in my chair to see the Fremont

Here is some trivia:

• It came into being in 1973, yes, before I was born. At the time they lifted the center span, it was the heaviest thing that had ever been lifted, ever. It was in the Guinness Book of World Records.
• Last time I’d looked, it was the longest tied-arch bridge in the world. Now it’s second to a bridge across the Yangtze (dang you China!). It is the biggest bridge in Oregon, which is likely not surprising.
• Its noticeable design was reactionary to the humdrum, un-fun-utilitarian Marquam Bridge (I-405 bridge over the Willamette River).
• It’s 381 feet high. Yep, that will likely kill you, with the jumping.

Fremont bridge + Boats + Birds originally uploaded by Samgrover

How do you feel about the Fremont? In terms of Portland bridges, where does it fall for you?

Here are what I believe to be the answers to my rather popular post reminiscing about Portland of years past. Keep in mind that these are what I believe to be correct answers, but I could be inaccurate.

Which of the places listed below are currently still in their original location as of, oh, the early- to mid- ’80s or so?

1. Nordstrom’s (downtown): Still in its original location. I used to buy my shoes here back in the Saltwater sandal and Mary Jane era of my life. Buy shoes, get a balloon shaped like a peanut. Anyone?
2. The Children’s Museum: Used to be located off of SW Barbur near the YWCA south of downtown. Now located up by the zoo. Bonus points if you knew that the building it’s in up by the zoo used to be OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry).
3. Camera World: A bit of a trick question. The original Camera World was located a block away in a darkish, smaller spot. I think the old location was 5th & Washington on the south side, and it is now at 6th & Washington, on the north side. It is also no longer locally owned (sad).
4. Central Library: If there is one stable building downtown that has never moved, it’s this one. Having said that, during its renovation the “central library” branch was housed in the location of the current downtown 24 Hour Fitness at, what, 4th & Clay?
5. The Bijou Cafe: My dad used to take me to breakfast there when I was three. Still in same place.
6. The Old Spaghetti Factory: Surprising how few people remember the original location in Old Town, across from Bar 71 or whatever. It was the Quest night club for a lot of years after that. The big, flagship location in South Waterfront was a product of the 1990s.

Everyone gets to participate! The older the memory, the more cred you get for being Portland-indigenous.

• Remember when Lloyd Center was open to the sky? It got rainy in there. I have a photo of me with the Easter Bunny there when I was about three or four.
• Remember when they imploded that building downtown to make room for Pioneer Place?
• Remember Powell’s before the expansion? Extra credit: remember when the children’s section was in the present Gold room? Extra extra credit: do you remember shopping in the kid’s section when you were a kid? How about the Catbird Seat bookstore above the present location of Columbia Sportswear downtown?
• Did you attend the arrival of Portlandia, downtown in the rain? “It was installed in September 1985 after being floated up the Willamette River on a barge.” (Wikipedia)
• Do you remember the waterfront before the Harborside/Riverplace development?
• Did you shop at Finnegan’s toys when you were younger? And can anyone (besides me) remember “City Kids” in, I think, the current location of the Great Harvest Bread Co. in Yamhill Market? And, for that matter, anyone recall actually shopping in the Yamhill Market?

Quiz!
Which of the places listed below are currently still in their original location as of, oh, the early- to mid- ’80s or so? Discuss.

1. Nordstrom’s (downtown)
2. The Children’s Museum
3. Camera World
4. Central Library
5. The Bijou Cafe
6. The Old Spaghetti Factory

Speaking of all of this, am I the only person who misses the former Psycho Safeway at SW 10th & Jefferson? It’s all a heap of condos now and when we drive by I have to turn my head and tell myself not to look over there because it’s just going to be weird.