The Northwest Coast is the coastal region of the Pacific Northwest, and the Northwest Plateau (also commonly known as "the Interior" in British Columbia), is the inland region. The term "Pacific Northwest" should not be confused with the Northwest Territory (also known as the Great Northwest, a historical term in the United States) or the Northwest Territories of Canada. The region is sometimes referred to as Cascadia, which, depending on the borders, may or may not be the same thing as the Pacific Northwest.
The region's largest metropolitan areas are Greater Seattle, Washington, with 4 million people; Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, with 2.84 million people; and Greater Portland, Oregon, with 2.5 million people.
The culture of the Pacific Northwest is influenced by the Canada–United States border, which the United States and the United Kingdom established at a time when the region's inhabitants were composed mostly of indigenous peoples. Two sections of the border—one along the 49th parallel south of British Columbia and one between the Alaska Panhandle and northern British Columbia—have left a great impact on the region. According to Canadian historian Ken Coates, the border has not merely influenced the Pacific Northwest—rather, "the region's history and character have been determined by the boundary". (Full article...)
The railroad offers passenger excursions using a historic or replica-historic trolley on a former Southern Pacific line previously known as the Jefferson Street branch. The line runs for 5.5 miles (9 km), including a passage through the 0.25-mile-long (0.4 km) Elk Rock Tunnel. The Lake Oswego terminal is downtown, alongside State Street (Oregon Route 43) just south of A Avenue. The location of the Portland terminal has varied over the years, but since fall 2003 it has been at SW Bancroft Street and Moody Avenue in the new high-density South Waterfront neighborhood under construction, a location that was only one block south of the Portland Streetcar terminus at SW Lowell Street and Moody Avenue after the latter's extension in 2007. However, all service on the Willamette Shore line was suspended in July 2010, when the line's only streetcar broke down. In early 2013, a lease was secured on a replacement streetcar, a Gomaco-built faux-Vintage Trolley, to enable a resumption of service on the southernmost portion of the line, and that section of the line reopened in August 2014. Service over the northern half of the line, to Bancroft Street in Portland, was restored on July 21, 2017, but has been suspended again since the end of 2019, awaiting trestle repair work, leaving only the line's southernmost section in operation for the time being. (Full article...)
Image 2Map of "megacity", showing population density (shades of yellow/brown), highways (red), and major railways (black). Public land shown in shades of green. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 3The immense floods created channels that are presently dry, such as the Drumheller Channels (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 4Notable volcanoes in the US portion of the Cascades (from Cascade Range)
Image 8Magnetic anomalies around the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges, off the west coast of North America, color coded by age. (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
Image 12Public transportation is used in the Pacific Northwest region. Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system achieves daily ridership of over 500,000 passengers per day on weekdays and the overall transit ridership levels in the Metro Vancouver area rank third in North America per capita. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 22None of the multiple possible definitions of the Pacific Northwest is universally accepted. This map shows three possibilities: (1) The shaded area shows the historical Oregon Country. (2) The green line shows the Cascadia bioregion. (3) The labeled states and provinces include Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia. (from Pacific Northwest)
Image 35The Coast Mountains are heavily eroded by glaciers, including Mount Waddington (far background, center). (from Geology of the Pacific Northwest)
... that future state senator William T. Vinton was sent to jail for contempt of court when he refused to sign a city paving contract, but was later vindicated by an Oregon Supreme Court decision?