NE Union Avenue (Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) and NE Columbia Boulevard looking south, February 8, 1934. The Interstate Auto campground and Gustin’s Tires are both visible.
City of Portland Archives, Oregon, A2009-009.1532
NE Union Avenue, 1934
Vintage Portland
Vintage Portland 
Amazing! The other thing i notice is the streetcar line from the north. I believe this is the line that travelled over the I-5 bridge, and over the slough on trestles till it met up with Union here.
Google street view, August 2014: https://goo.gl/maps/VRxAzScCRL82
I believe you are right about the street car tracks, Adam, as I’ve stated earlier in this post:
https://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/ne-union-columbia-1937/#comments
It’s also amazing how much has changed between this 1934 photo and the previous 1937 photos of this intersection!
Awesome! Here’s a shot a few years later, just across the overpass on Lombard and Union: https://vintageportland.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/a2005-001-370-ne-lombard-at-union-west-1937.jpg
Lumber, feed and eggs… That would be a lot more useful for me today than McDonald’s…
Some more info on streetcar lines.
http://lotusfaloma.blogspot.com/
I was wondering if that man in the trench coat might be the Number Man getting ready to hold up a number… but then I saw another man farther down the road doing the same thing. Maybe one is waiting at the trolley stop, and the other at a bus stop?
Don:
Maybe they’re just traffic “flashers”! (Sorry…couldn’t resist it!)
@ Tim Muir
“It’s also amazing how much has changed between this 1934 photo and the previous 1937 photos of this intersection!”
Not really. The 1937 photo was taken looking north, while today’s post (1934) is facing south. About the only difference. Maybe a couple of signs are gone, but other than that. looks pretty similar.
Vancouver street car tracks leaving the street NB onto private ROW and trestles.