Photos

On the way home we decided to drive north through Astoria, Oregon and visit the Astoria Column. The Column, built in 1926 for $32,550, is 125 feet high and has 164 steps spiraling to the top. The view is a bit scary for people afraid of heights since the platform you stand on juts out over the column.

Patterned after the Trajan Column in Rome, the Astoria Column is the world's only large piece of memorial architecture made of reinforced concrete with a pictorial frieze in sgraffito technique. The column artwork illustrates the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray in 1792, the establishment of American claims to the Northwest Territory, the winning of the west and the arrival of the Great Northern Railway.

In a workshop I've added photos taken individually of all four sides of the column.

After nearly 70 years of exposure to coastal weather and salt air, time had begun to take its toll on the Astoria Column's unique artwork. By 1995, many of the pictures had deteriorated nearly to the point of invisibility. But the Friends of the Astoria Column and the Astoria community worked together to restore and preserve the artistic character of the column. Internationally renowned experts spent six months cleaning, reconstructing and restoring the images to their original luster and their completed work was unveiled in November, 1997.

Photo: Leveled, Cropped, Brightness/Contrast, Resized, Clarify, Sharpened.