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The City of Portland, Oregon

Portland Bureau of Transportation

Phone: 503-823-5185

Fax: 503-823-7576

1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 1331, Portland, OR 97204

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Pacific NW Setting

Portland was transportation driven from the beginning. Water was the major form of transportation in the northwest at the time. The Portland area has the greatest amount of access into the back country of Oregon and Washington because it's on the Columbia River. This area was a good location for a city rather than Puget Sound which is a much better body of water but which doesn't have any water access to the agricultural, trapping and mining areas of the Columbia Basin.