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Top Attractions in Portland

Tom McCall Waterfront Park

Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park is a 36.59-acre park located in downtown Portland, Oregon, along the Willamette River. After the 1974 removal of Harbor Drive (a good example of freeway removal), the park was opened to the public in 1978. The park covers 13 tax lots is owned by the City of Portland (Portland Parks and Recreation). The park was renamed in 1984 to honor Tom McCall, the Oregon governor who pledged his support for the beautification of the west bank of the Willamette River—harkening back to the City Beautiful plans at the turn of the century that envisioned parks and greenways along the river. The park is bordered by RiverPlace to the south, the Steel Bridge to the north, Naito Parkway to the west, and Willamette River to the east. In October 2012, Waterfront Park was voted one of America's ten greatest public spaces by the American Planning Association. The most common uses for the park are jogging, walking, biking, skateboarding, fountain play, lunching, basketball, fireworks viewing, Segwaying and boat watching. Due to its recreational use, lunch hours are peak-use hours for the waterfront park. In addition to recreational use, the park is also highly used by bike and pedestrian commuters during rush hours because the park is easily accessible to the downtown Portland workforce and provides a pleasant, off street thoroughfare away from vehicular traffic. It is currently home to the Waterfront Blues Festival, Oregon Brewers Festival, Gay/Lesbian Pride Festival and The Bite of Oregon Festival. The park is also the host of many Rose Festival events.

Vista Bridge

The Vista Bridge is an arch bridge for vehicles and pedestrians located in Portland, Oregon, United States. It connects the areas of Kings Hill and Vista Ridge which are both in the Goose Hollow neighborhood. The MAX Light Rail line and Jefferson Street/Canyon Road travel under the bridge, and Vista Avenue crosses the bridge. The ravine it passes over was carved out by Tanner Creek and is referred to as the Tanner Creek Canyon, which was called "The Great Plank Road". Tanner Creek was diverted underground beginning in the 1870s with work completed in the early 1900s. The creek still runs underground beneath the Vista Bridge, although it now drains the surrounding hillside via storm drains and a culvert to the Willamette River. The bridge has four pedestrian balconies, or "refuge bays", holding concrete benches, two on each side. The 248-foot-long structure was designed by architect Fred T. Fowler. It is of a rib-reinforced concrete deck arch design. Completed in 1926, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, as the Vista Avenue Viaduct, on April 26, 1984. The Ford Street Bridge, a previous bridge on this site, was built in 1903 as part of a streetcar route to Council Crest, the highest point in Portland at 1,070 feet. Council Crest was the site of the "Big Tree Observatory" and a popular amusement park and dance hall that operated from 1907 to 1929. Streetcars crossed the current bridge until 1950, when service on the Council Crest line was abandoned, but the disused tracks remained in place on the bridge for another four decades, until a renovation of the bridge deck. In 1991, several bungee jumps were filmed here for an Oregon Lottery advertisement. Opening scenes for the 2004 film What the Bleep Do We Know!? were filmed in Goose Hollow and included views of the Vista Bridge and the Goose Hollow/SW Jefferson St . In 2010, the title shot for Portlandia was photographed from the Vista Bridge. The bridge has been a popular place for jumpers, with the first incident possibly occurring five years after its 1926 opening, earning it the nickname "Suicide Bridge". From 2004 through 2011, 13 people committed suicide by jumping. In July 2013, following three fatal jumps in six months, Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick approved an emergency request by the Portland Transportation Bureau to erect temporary suicide barriers. Because of its status on the National Register of Historic Places the bridges the barrier had to be approved by the Preservation Society under the National Historic Preservation Act and by the State Historic Preservation Office and any federal and state agencies that provide funding. Following the erection of a suicide barrier in the fall of 2013, a would-be jumper managed to get around the barrier but was talked down by police; in January 2014, a 14-year-old boy shot and killed himself on the bridge, tumbling onto the adjacent embankment.

Audubon Society of Portland

The Audubon Society of Portland is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to wildlife conservancy in Portland, Oregon, U.S. Founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1909, it is one of the oldest such organizations in the world. It is named in honor of John James Audubon, an ornithologist and naturalist who painted, cataloged, and described birds of North America in Birds of America published in sections between 1827 and 1838. The society owns 150 acres of woodland adjacent to Forest Park, managed as a nature sanctuary and features indigenous vegetation and fauna, including a small stand of old growth timber. The sanctuary is open to the public for free. Much of the sanctuary surrounds Balch Creek near its headwaters and contains more than 4.5 miles of hiking trails which connect to Forest Parks extensive trail system. Within the sanctuary is a nature center containing classrooms, retail store, wildlife taxidermy exhibits, auditorium, and a wildlife care center. The care center treats injured and orphaned native wildlife utilizing professional staff and more than one hundred volunteers. More than 3,500 animals are brought to the center each year. Displays of live educational birds are adjacent to the care center. Approximately seven birds are on display, having injuries too severe for them to live in the wild. Currently there is a peregrine falcon, northern spotted owl, American kestrel, common raven, great horned owl, turkey vulture, and a red-tailed hawk. In 2007, there were 21,615 hours volunteered to the societys efforts, including visitor reception, trail maintenance, tour guides, nature store attendant, clerical, conservation activists, and wildlife caretakers. It is one of the most highly rated charities of its kind, based on operational and organizational efficiency. The society is frequently consulted for expertise related to practical wildlife questions and wildlife management practices.

Delta Park

Delta Park is a public municipal park complex in north Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It straddles Interstate 5, between the Columbia Slough on the south and the Columbia River on the north. The section east of the Interstate is known as East Delta Park, and to the west is West Delta Park. This area was formerly known as the city of Vanport, created during World War II to house shipbuilders and destroyed by a flood in 1948. The Owens Sports Complex, a large part of East Delta Park, includes seven softball fields, nine soccer fields, and a concessions building. The complex is named for William V. Owens, a former park superintendent who developed and managed the citys softball program. East Delta Park also has a dog off-leash area, a football field, paved paths, picnic tables, a playground, and a volleyball court. The Portland Parks Recreation Department operates the 85.34-acre park, which is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Urban Forestry Division of the Portland Parks Department maintains a street-tree arboretum in East Delta Park. The trees are the kinds the division recommends for planting in public rights-of-way between curbs and sidewalks. Headquartered in the park, the division uses the arboretum to teach tree identification to members of Friends of Trees and similar community organizations. Portland International Raceway, for car, motorcycle and bicycle racing, is part of West Delta Park. Sharing the park with the raceway are the Heron Lakes Golf Course, a dog off-leash area, and natural areas. Force Lake at 45°36′17″N 122°41′37″W in the northwest corner of the golf course attracts many species of birds. Signs around the lake describe the wildlife and explain the history of Vanport.

Hoyt Arboretum

The Hoyt Arboretum is located atop a ridge in the west hills of Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1922 by a collection of timber industry representatives, the U.S. Forest Service, the Portland Parks Recreation department, and enthusiasts. The 187-acre arboretum hosts just under ten thousand individual trees and shrubs of more than eleven hundred species from all over the world. Most have labels identifying common and scientific names and region of origin. The arboretum has twelve miles of trails, a visitor center, an indoor classroom with seating for 40 people, a picnic shelter and a meadow. Volunteer tour guides have been available since the 1970s. The arboretum is located two miles west of downtown Portland within Washington Park, and close to the Oregon Zoo, and the International Rose Test Garden. The Arboretum is open to the public and accessible at several points from Washington Park or from the Macleay Trail in Forest Park. The volunteer-staffed visitors center is located at the center of the park where visitors can find information about the park and its trees; the visitors center is also the starting point for periodic volunteer-guided tours. Of note is the Dawn Redwood, one of only a few known deciduous conifers . The species was once thought extinct and known only in fossils, but was rediscovered in a remote valley in China in the early part of the twentieth century. The tree was reintroduced to the western hemisphere through saplings planted in the Hoyt Arboretum. The trees bear soft, short needles and have a distinctive look in that the branches seem to push out from folds in the trunk. Peggie Schwarz is the current executive director of the Hoyt Arboretum Friends Group. She has been the director since 2011.

Pittock Mansion

The Pittock Mansion is a French Renaissance-style "château" in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon, USA, originally built as a private home for The Oregonian publisher Henry Pittock and his wife, Georgiana. It is a 23-room estate built of Tenino Sandstone situated on 46 acres that is now owned by the citys Bureau of Parks and Recreation and open for touring. In addition, the grounds provide panoramic views of Downtown Portland. The home was at the center of a political scandal in 1911 when Portland City Council member, Will H. Daly, brought public attention to Pittock having arranged for a water line to the construction project entirely at city expense, despite it being located a half mile outside of the city limits at the time. The incident contributed to a longstanding feud between Pittocks paper and Daly which ultimately led to the end of the councilmans political career. Georgiana, one of the founders of the Portland Rose Festival, died in 1918 at the age of 72, and Henry in 1919 at 84. The Pittock family remained in residence at the mansion until 1958, when Eric Ladd, who had stayed in the mansion for four years, and Peter Gantenbein, a Pittock grandson who had been born in the house, put the estate on the market and were unsuccessful in selling it. Extensive damage caused by the Columbus Day Storm in 1962 caused the owners to consider demolishing the building. The community raised $75,000 in three months in order to help the city purchase the property. Seeing this popular support, and agreeing that the house had tremendous value as a unique historic resource, the City of Portland purchased the estate in 1964 for $225,000. Fifteen months were spent restoring it. The mansion opened to the public in 1965, and has been a community landmark ever since. Roughly 80,000 people visit the Pittock Mansion each year. Due to the location of the site 1,000 feet above sea level, the mansion is one of the best places for birdwatching in Portland. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The City of Portland estimates that $6–8 million worth of restorations are needed.

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