Vintage Footage of Portland Traffic
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
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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.
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.
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!