Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 2002

Tom McCall Waterfront Park: This park was, until the 1970's, a four-lane highway. When I-5 and I-405 were built as a loop around downtown Portland, highway 99W became unnecessary, so the highway was turned into the present waterfront park, which has become the site of numerous summer festivals as well as year-round recreation. There was also an effort to clean up the Willamette River in the 1970's to coincide with this re-bonding of downtown Portland with the river, but the river's cleaner profile didn't last long and has since become hopelessly polluted again. The park has still become an essential part of the city.