Holiday Inn Express And Suites

The Astoria Column, in a wooded park atop Astoria's highest hill, presents a spectacular view of the historic city and its surrounding rivers, bay, forest, mountains, and ocean. The Column, built in 1926, is 125 feet high and has 164 steps winding to the top. Two rivers (Columbia, & Young's) wrap around Astoria as it points westward toward the mouth of the Columbia river & the Pacific Ocean. Astoria has 3 river crossing bridges The Astoria Bridge stretches 4.1 miles across the Columbia connecting Oregon & Washington along US 101 - this bridge is of the longest bridges of its type in the world. Patterned after the Trajan Column in Rome, the Astoria Column is truly unique. It's the world's only large piece of memorial architecture made of reinforced concrete with a pictorial frieze in sgraffito technique. The column presents a fascinating illustration of 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.
The Column was named after John Jacob Astor, a New York financer & fur trader, who had established a trade route on the West coast. This trade route would eventually lead to the establishment of Astoria. The view is breathtaking. Well worth the walk, 164 steps going round and round and round and round.