Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park comprises 36.59 acres that stretch from Riverplace on the south to the Steel Bridge on the north. On the west, the park is bordered by Naito Parkway and the Willamette River forms the eastern boundary.

The park consists of 13 tax lots and is owned by the City of Portland (Portland Parks and Recreation) though the land under the bridges is owned by Multnomah County. The park can generally be divided into five distinct zones, described below.

• The Esplanade is paved walkway along the river, part of a riverfront corridor extending on both sides of the Willamette River within which “river recreational” uses are promoted. Greenway regulations define this zone as 25' from the top of the bank. In Waterfront Park, the greenway zone includes the walkway and part of the adjacent lawn areas as well.

• The Bowl anchors the southern end of the park, abutting the Riverplace residential and An Overview of the Park commercial development. Because of the bowl’s natural slope to the water, it functions as an informal amphitheater for concerts. The bowl also serves as the site of the annual Dragonboat races, Oregon Symphony concerts and the Blues Festival.

• Salmon Street Springs and the John Yeon building anchor the area north of Hawthorne Bridge. The fountain is set in a concrete plaza, which includes a set of sitting steps that leads to a viewing area over the river.

• McCall’s Restaurant, the current occupant of the historic John Yeon building, abuts the fountain to the south and is the major permanent commercial user of the park. This area also acts as the moorage and embarking site for the Portland Spirit, a small cruise ship that provides 2-hour trips on the Willamette River.

• The central lawn is a dominant feature of the park, between Salmon Street Springs to the Burnside Bridge. The lawn is used most intensively during the summer by a series of outdoor festivals and events.

Use of the Park

Jogging, walking, biking, skateboarding, fountain play, lunching, basketball, fireworks viewing and boat watching are common, popular informal park uses. As Waterfront Park is easily accessible to the downtown Portland workforce, it is heavily used, especially by walkers and joggers, during the lunch hours from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, as well as from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Bike commuters use the park during rush hours because Naito Parkway lacks bike lanes.

History

The idea for this park came at the turn of the century when the 1903 Olmsted Report pointed out the need not only for parks within the city, but for a greenway scheme for the riverbanks in order to ensure their preservation for future generations. 

In the late 1920s, the seawall was built along the Willamette's west bank for the protection of downtown from the annual floods. The seawall not only cut off the water from the people, but the people from the water as well. The construction of Harbor Drive along the west bank in the 1940s continued the trend of isolating the public from the river.

With the opening of the Eastbank Freeway (Marquam Bridge, I-5), Harbor Drive became less important to the traffic flow of the city. Governor Tom McCall created the Harbor Drive Task Force in 1968 in order to study proposals for creating a public open space in its place. In 1974, Harbor Drive was torn up and construction of a waterfront park began. It was completed and dedicated in 1978, gaining instant popularity. In 1984, the park was renamed Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

In 1851 when Portland was founded as a city, the waterfront was the center of the city’s commerce and trade. Even in 1907, docks and buildings extended over the river and were connected by a narrow, meandering strip between the river’s edge and Front Street. Flooding was a constant problem and was controlled only by the streets which acted as public levees. During the first three decades of the 1900s, largely due to flooding, the preferred location for housing and business shifted further west.