Sight #2 Cornell Tunnel

Cornell Tunnel

3596 NW Cornell Rd., Portland, OR 97210 (link is external)

Cornell Tunnel, 1971

In 1940 and 1941, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program funded the construction of the Cornell tunnels. Since then, they have offered an aesthetically pleasing and convenient throughway under the hills of Forest Park.

What's the story before then? In 1852, William Cornell crossed the Great Plains from Alexandria, Ohio. His destination: Portland, Oregon. The Donation Land Claim Act had passed in 1850 and he took the opportunity to settle a plot for himself. Thus it came to pass that he participated in the dispossession of Native Americans from their homelands. The first section of the road that was named after him was established at this time, just east of the current western boundary of Multnomah County.

William's wife, Emily, and their five children joined him two years later in 1854. Did they cross the Plains? They did not. Emily Julia Cornell was four years old when she made the journey with her mother. It involved a trip to New York, a steamer boat down the Atlantic coast, across the Caribbean... Well, you'll have more fun reading about her experience in With Her Own Words: Historical Sketches, Reminiscences, and Anecdotes of Oregon's Pioneer Women, edited by Helen Krebs Smith.