Portland Travel Information
The largest urban area in Oregon, Portland is renowned as a clean,
green and friendly city. Radiating around the confluence of the
Willamette and Columbia rivers, the Portland area's lush green
cityscape and inviting, walkable neighborhoods are the result of its
mild temperate rainforest climate combined with progressive urban
planning. As its name suggests, Portland's waterways are still in
many respects its lifeblood. The city's port is one of the West Coast
leaders in foreign waterborne cargo, and battleships and other
oceangoing vessels go into drydock here for repair. But like many West
Coast cities, Portland (along with close neighbors such as Beaverton)
has also seen burgeoning growth among high-tech industries. Called
"The City of Roses," Portland is indeed home to the acclaimed
four-acre International Rose Test Gardens (with more than 10,000
plants, the "test" in the name comes from its status as one of 24
official testing sites for All American Rose selections). It is also a
city of bridges, with a dozen spanning the Willamette (and two across
the Columbia), from its oldest, the Hawthorne Bridge, to the newest,
the Fremont. Portland is also home to attractions such as the lush
Japanese Gardens, and the miles of hikeable and bikeable paths of
in-town Forest Park, the nation's largest urban wilderness. Portland
is located in northwestern Oregon, off Interstate 5 on the Washington
border. To learn more about Portland, please select a topic of
interest from the navigation bar on the left.
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