Aerial view of Portland International Raceway construction, 1971.
City of Portland Archives, Oregon, Aerial view of Portland International Raceway construction, A2012-005, 1971.
Portland International Raceway, 1971
Vintage Portland
Aerial view of Portland International Raceway construction, 1971.
City of Portland Archives, Oregon, Aerial view of Portland International Raceway construction, A2012-005, 1971.
Vintage Portland 
Our raceway used to be much, much longer (and more fun). For a maps of the courses over the years since 1961 go to http://www.racingcircuits.info/north-america/usa/portland-international-raceway.html. Watch it shrink. Still, it is the fasted city park in town.
Wow. Look at all of those beautiful wetlands still left on the peninsula.
Sneaked into there as a kid in about 67? 69? to watch drag races. It was an all AMC meet with Javelins etc. We thought we were so cool for getting in free til we found out later that the entire event was free to everyone. You could here the drag races in the 60’s from our house on the corner of Morgan and Williams st.s quite a ways from the track. I still think they should let the big boys come in there once a year but then I don’t live in the area any more so easy for me to say.
And the two radio towers – who and are they still there?
12 people with money shut down drag racing for thousands of people who enjoyed going there at least once a week. Sounds like 12 douchebags to me. Remember: Alcohol is for drinking, Gas is for cleaning parts, and NITRO is for racing.
You can see the railroad bridges crossing the slough and the Columbia. The one crossing the slough is the BSNF Railway Bridge 8.8 (aka the Oregon Slough Railroad Bridge) and the one crossing the Columbia is the BSNF Railway Bridge 9.6. Together they constitute the only two remaining swing span type bridges in the Portland area.
Interesting view I have never seen before. I just can’t believe someone saw all that wetland and said “hey, I know, lets put all the industrial there!” and this in the mid 70s. Port of Portland was and still is pretty backward when it comes to our natural resources as recently evidenced by the whole west Hayden Island debacle.
I have pics on my blog ( https://fadedportland.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/above-kelley-point-park-1976/ ) showing that area around Kelley PP in 1976 and, although graded, was still unoccupied sand.
Google Vanport. It was built as a housing development originally.
Not a trace remains of the Portland Speedway Jantzen Beach Arena.
*smacks head*
Correction to my earlier post – those bridges are BNSF owned, not BSNF owned. My apologies to rail afficionados. In my defense, my forebears worked for Union Pacific. 🙂
I wish traffic on I-5 still looked like that.
@Don Tucker
I didn’t know there were ever 2 towers. The last one came down in 2000 when the site was reclaimed as a wetland. There used to be a video of it being destroyed, but it seems to be gone now. This site tells a little about it. Scroll to the bottom.
http://www.pdxradio.com/History.html
Man the Expo center sure was different then. The whole area seems very sparse at this time.
Your favorite place… >