Oregon City Municipal Elevator, Oregon

The municipal elevator at Oregon City is an unusual method of public conveyance. As this town, next to the Willamette Falls on the Willamette River, developed in the late 1800s, it had a lower part near the banks of the Willamette River, and an upper part on the steep bluff above the river. Though a stairway was constructed to join these two parts of the town, its 722 steps were time and energy consuming, especially heading back to town on the bluff after a hard day of work at the mills by the falls. The first elevator built by the city opened in 1915, with nearly the entire population of 3,900 people taking a ride on opening day. The elevator was inside a vertical wooden tower, with a narrow, high bridge at the top connecting it to the top of the bluff. The elevator was hydraulically powered, and it took up to five minutes to travel the 89 vertical feet. Though it was later improved with electric motors, the structure degraded, and was replaced by a new concrete structure, built closer to the face of the bluff, in 1955. It remains in service today, likely still the only such outdoor municipal thoroughfare elevator (the only “vertical street") in the country.