When one thinks of underground tunnel systems, usually images of Paris’s Catacombs or Disney World’s utilidors are conjured up, with walls made of skulls and corporate mice riding golf carts (two very different settings, just begging to be combined.) However, an equally enthralling, mystery-ridden set of tunnels run under Portland, Oregon, and their past is dark.
The Shanghai Tunnels, or the Portland Underground, date back to the nineteenth century when they were used to store supplies carried by ships docked in the port.
The tunnels link the Willamette River docks to various hotel and restaurant basements, making it easy for goods to be transported without any of the congestion that exists aboveground.
