[5974]Oregon is divided, roughly speaking, into two parts: the forest and the beach. Even more roughly speaking, the dividing line is US highway 101. An hour out of Portland, on 18, and I turned south onto 101.
I stopped just south of Lincoln City at a small cove. The coast is a series of coves, each with its own town or hotel. The one I stopped at looked public, and had one of those great signs telling the history of the place.
There was a great earthquake here in 1700, apparently. Those who survived did not expect to be wiped out by a tidal wave twenty minutes later, but they were. Having appraised us of this, the notice than turned distinctly threatening: earthquakes happen every 200-1000 years, it said. If there's an earthquake, get off the beach. Go inland and get uphill, it said. Always assuming, I thought, that during the earthquake inland had not come out, and uphill had not come down.
As I drove on, I got roadside notices telling me when I was going into or coming out of the tidal wave danger area. I just can't see how this improves local tourism. Well, they did code it a little bit: they referred throughout to tidal wave by its currently fashionable Japanese sobriquet, 'tsunami'.
Highway 101 was another of the 'New Deal' public works projects that FDR used to get people back to work. All the bridges in Oregon were designed by an engineer called Conde McCullough. His finest is the one across the Coos Bay at North Bend, at the southern tip of the Oregon Dunes. Nestling under its northern end is Glasgow, Oregon.
It's a very impressive structure to see from a distance. (It is currently undergoing extensive renovation.)
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And, just as I got to the northern approaches, reassuringly, just where I was expecting it, was a signpost to Glasgow.
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