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Portland Skyline

Portland Skyline

Portland is the largest city in the state of Oregon on the west coast of the US. However, it is the smallest city I will be visiting in the country. Even still, I wanted to see if I could capture a photograph of the skyline. This was taken from the south east side of Portland looking across the Williamette River. On the left is the Hawthrone Bridge. It is the oldest lift bridge in the US, built in 1910. When I was scouting out locations during the day the bridge was closed for repairs with the lift span in the middle raised up. Fortunately the bridge reopened before I was setting up for this photograph.

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Union Station Portland

Union Station Portland

In the heart of the Oldtown area of Portland on the west shore of the Williamette River is Union Station. Designed in 1882, the original plan would have made this the largest train station in the world. In the end the smaller station we see here was opened in 1896. Being such a large country, the USA is not known for its train travel. After all, it takes at least 3 days on a train from LA to New York. That said, travelling between cities on the coast the train can often work out cheaper and easier, with airports usually located outside of the city centre unlike train stations. From here I took the Amtrak Cascades route north to Vancouver via Seattle.

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Lan Su Chinese Garden

Lan Su Chinese Garden

Walking around downtown Portland, exploring the banks and bridges of the Williamette River, I wasn’t expecting to come across a walled Chinese Garden. Enclosing a full city block in the Chinatown area the garden is influenced by many of the famous classical gardens in Suzhou. As you can see from this photograph, the dominant feature of the garden is the artificial Lake Zither in the centre. Only having one full day to explore Portland I didn’t spend very long in the gardens but with the reflection on the lake this turned out to be one of my favourite photographs of the day.