The 40-Mile Loop is a partially completed greenway trail around and through

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. It was proposed in 1903 by the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law O ...

architecture firm as part of the development of Forest Park. One greenway expert calls it "one of the most creative and resourceful greenway projects in the country." The name's "forty" was obsolete within a few decades after it was proposed. The proposed total path is now about long, and connects more than thirty city parks. Similarly, "loop" is not entirely accurate. There are several subloops, cutoffs and spur trails within the system. One spur is proposed to connect to the

Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

History

As part of beautification planning for the

Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, commonly also known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portlan ...

of 1905, Portland's recently established Parks Board invited the

in 1903. Besides suggestions for Washington Park, their research of existing city parks resulted in a bold proposal for a loop of interconnected parks around the city, instead of a traditional plan of scattered parks: "A connected system of parks and parkways is manifestly far more complete and useful than a series of isolated parks." As the brothers puzzled over a name for the system, one asked the other "What would you call a forty-mile loop?" The firm was famous for its straightforward names, so they left it at that. Little action occurred until a $1 million—equivalent to $ today—city bond measure in 1907 passed, which was used to develop existing parks. In 1912, another city planner,

Edward H. Bennett Edward Herbert Bennett (1874–1954) was an architect and city planner best known for his co-authorship of the 1909 Plan of Chicago. Biography Bennett was born in Bristol, England in 1874, and later moved to San Francisco with his family.Cohen, 2 ...

, also recommended developing a ridgetop park long the West Hills. A $2 million bond issue to acquire the necessary land was voted down. However, shortly afterward, most of the lots sold in Forest Park forfeited to the city or Multnomah County due to high assessments for road building, and a landslide. In 1943, influential urban planner Robert Moses was hired, and recommended establishing Forest Park. After several subsequent years of controversy, the park was created in 1948 from tax-delinquent lands, gifts, and purchases. This contained the first portion of the loop. Little more happened until 1978: at the request of Oregon legislators, U.S. Congress stripped the

Columbia Slough The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland suburb of Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west through Gresham and Portland to ...

of its "navigable" status, enabling the land to be dedicated to recreational use, an important component of the Olmsted plan. The Oregon director of the

Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

responded to withering federal funds for parks and natural areas by reviving the loop plan to enthusiastic receptions by the City, suburban cities, federal agencies, conservationists, and civic groups. The alliance eventually formed the ''40-Mile Loop Land Trust'' which proved most effective at getting the thirteen key governmental entities—which normally did not talk to each other—to effectively work together. It also served as an intermediary to transfer property from one entity to the other. One of the Land Trust's major victories was bringing

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

and

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

railroads together, which jointly owned the abandoned

Springwater Corridor The Springwater Corridor Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian rail trail in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It follows a former railway line from Boring through Gresham to Portland, where it ends south of the Eastbank Es ...

, to transfer the land in 1990 to the Trust. It represented significant progress in the completion of the loop.

Trail

The trail has a variety of sections: some are on level ground, such as along the Columbia River; others are heavily forested and/or mountainous, as through Washington Park's

Hoyt Arboretum Hoyt Arboretum is a public park in Portland, Oregon, which is part of the complex of parks collectively known as Washington Park. The arboretum is located atop a ridge in the Tualatin Mountains west of downtown Portland. Hoyt has 12 miles of ...

. All portions are suitable for walking and hiking, and most are open to bicycling. There are opportunities for strollers, wheelchairs, skating, skateboarding, horseback riding, canoeing, and kayaking.

Route highlights

* St. Johns Bridge *

Kelley Point Park Kelley Point Park is a city park in north Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Bounded by the Columbia Slough on the south, the Willamette River on the west, and the Columbia River on the north, the park forms the tip of the peninsula at the c ...

* N. and NE Marine Drive along the south bank of the Columbia River *

Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area is a public park and nature reserve between the Columbia Slough and the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon. At about , it is one of the largest urban freshwater wetlands in the United States. Metro, the re ...

* Blue Lake Park *

Troutdale, Oregon Troutdale is a city in Multnomah County, Oregon, United States, immediately north of Gresham and east of Wood Village. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 15,962. The city serves as the western gateway to the Historic Columbia Rive ...

Mount Hood Community College Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) is a public community college in Gresham, Oregon, United States, named after Mount Hood. Opened in 1966, MHCC enrolls around 30,000 students each year and offers classes at the main campus in Gresham, as well as ...

Gresham, Oregon Gresham ( ) is a city located in Multnomah County, Oregon, in the United States of America, immediately east of Portland, Oregon. It is considered a suburb within the Greater Portland Metropolitan area. Though it began as a settlement in the mid ...

** Gresham Main City Park ** Gresham Butte ** Powell Butte Nature Park ** Leach Botanical Garden ** Tideman Johnson Natural Area **

Sellwood Park Sellwood Park is a city park of about in southeast Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundar ...

** Sellwood Riverfront Park ** Oaks Amusement Park ** Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge *

Eastbank Esplanade The Eastbank Esplanade (officially Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade) is a pedestrian and bicycle path along the east shore of the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. Running through the Kerns, Buckman, and Hosford-Abernethy neighb ...

Hawthorne Bridge The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical-lift bridge in operation in the United States and the o ...

Steel Bridge The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double-deck vertical-lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, opened in 1912. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries r ...

* I-205 Bike Path *

Sellwood Bridge The Sellwood Bridge is a deck arch bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The current bridge opened in 2016 and replaced a 1925 span that had carried the same name. The original bridge was Portland's firs ...

* Willamette Greenway ** Willamette Park **

South Waterfront The South Waterfront is a high-rise district under construction on former brownfield industrial land in the South Portland neighborhood south of downtown Portland, Oregon, U.S. It is one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the Unite ...

* Wildwood Trail ** Washington Park *** World Forestry Center *** Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial ***

Pittock Mansion The Pittock Mansion is a French Renaissance-style château in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon, United States. The mansion was originally built in 1914 as a private home for London-born '' Oregonian'' publisher Henry Pittock and his wife, Georg ...

** Forest Park ** Audubon Society of Portland

Future

The 40-Mile Loop spur

radiates eastward through Gresham and into Boring. Metro has proposed constructing the Cazadero Trail which would extend that spur past Estacada for eventual connection to the

References

{{Coord, 45.478956, N, 122.721019, W, region:US-OR, display=title Parks in Portland, Oregon Rail trails in Oregon Transportation in Portland, Oregon Bike paths in Oregon

History

Trail

Route highlights

Future

See also

References