Page:Report of the Park Board 1903.djvu/32

 runs nearly northwest from the mouth of Marquam Gulch Canyon to the mouth of Balch Creek Canyon, and continues in the same general direction for some miles further down the river. Up the river for some distance beyond Marquam Gulch, there is a narrow margin of moderately flat land between the hills and the river; which, however, is not large enough to provide for any considerable increase of population. Down the river from Balch Creek much of the space between the base of the hills and the river is occupied by Guild Lake and other lakes and sloughs and almost all of it is subject to being flooded by the river, so that there is little opportunity for the city to expand in this direction. The greatest width available west of the river for ordinary city development is a trifle over one and one-quarter miles, the average width about one mile and the length about two and one-half miles. East of the river there is practically unlimited opportunity for the expansion of the city, the only limit being the Columbia Sloughs, which are about two and one-half miles from the Willamette River at the Portland Flouring Mill, and about six miles on the line of Sandy Road. East of the river, the land from Sellwood to the Columbia Sloughs is a plain, slightly rolling, and intersected by gulches, but on the whole rising gently from the bluffs at the river to a low ridge parallel with the Columbia Sloughs and about half way between them and the Willamette River. This ridge is about two hundred feet high near the bluffs overlooking the Portland Flouring Mill, rises gradually to a height of about two hundred and fifty feet at Sandy Road, and continues some miles to the eastward. Directly east of the heart of the city, the land rises similarly, but more rapidly and is more rolling. Mount Tabor marks the eastern limit of this section of the city. Southward of Mount Tabor the land, while rising similarly, is gentler.

GROWTH OF THE CITY.
The inconvenience and expense of extending the city between and over the rugged hills west of it have already checked the growth of this older part of the city, and is causing in it a marked increase in the density of population. The expansion of the city in the way of developing new subdivisions is going on almost entirely east of the river, and obviously must in the main continue to do so. The part of the city west of the river is already provided with two parks of considerable size, while the vastly larger section of the city east of the river has only one park that is more than a square—Columbia Park—and this, being flat and uninteresting and remote from any densely populated area is likely to be little more than an exaggerated square of interest almost solely to the immediate neighborhood.