Northwest Industrial Area is an almost entirely industrial neighborhood in the Northwest section of

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

. According to the Portland Bureau of Planning, it "is one of the few remaining large urban industrial districts in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

" and "one of the premier heavy industrial districts in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

". It borders the neighborhoods of Linnton on the north,

Forest Park A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment. Examples Chile * Forest Park, Santiago China * Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai * Mufushan National Fore ...

on the west, the Northwest District on the south, and Cathedral Park (via the St. Johns Bridge), University Park, and

Overlook A scenic viewpoint—also called an observation point, viewpoint, viewing point, vista point, scenic overlook,These terms are more commonly used in North America. etc.—is an elevated location where people can view scenery (often with binocul ...

across the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

on the east.

Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 The BNSF Railway Bridge 5.1, also known as the St. Johns Railroad Bridge or the Willamette River Railroad Bridge, is a Truss bridge, through truss railway bridge with a Vertical-lift bridge, vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portl ...

allows

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

and

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

trains to cross the Willamette, connecting the neighborhood to North Portland and

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

state beyond. There are no schools or parks in Northwest Industrial, which has the smallest population of all 95 neighborhoods in Portland. Since 2001 almost all of the neighborhood has been designated the Guild's Lake Industrial Sanctuary, to preserve the land for long-term industrial use and to resist pressure for residential development.

History

The area was

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in the 19th century when Peter Guild, an early settler, received it as a donation land claim in 1848. In the 1880s the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

built the Guild's Lake Rail Yard, and rail switching facilities have ever since played an integral role in the area's development (along with

US Highway 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of , it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, afte ...

, which runs alongside the tracks here). The Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905 took place on the shore of Guild's Lake and on a semi-artificial island in the middle of the lake. Water was constantly pumped from the Willamette River to keep it full. The lake was subsequently slowly converted to landfill, a process completed in the 1920s. During the Second World War a massive temporary housing complex provided residences and schools for shipyard workers and their families. It was removed soon after the war to make way for development of the area as an industrial and

warehouse district This is a list of notable warehouse districts. A warehouse district or warehouse row is an area found in many urban setting known for being the current or former location of numerous warehouses. Logistically, warehouses are often located in indus ...

. Interstate 505 was to have run through the neighborhood, connecting I-405 with US Route 30 (St. Helens Road). The freeway spur was canceled in 1979, but US Highway 30 (Yeon Avenue) makes use of some of the infrastructure that was built before cancellation.

References

External links

Guild's Lake Industrial Sanctuary Plan
(Portland Bureau of Planning, 2001) {{Portland neighborhoods Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon Northwest Portland, Oregon