Portland International Airport

Portland International Airport, also known as PDX, is located in Portland, Oregon, just south of the Columbia River in Multnomah County. It’s a joint commercial and military airport, and it’s the largest in the state. With direct flights to Canada, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, as well as several non-stop connections to airport hubs throughout the United States, PDX carries 90 percent of all passenger air travel and more than 95 percent of air cargo in Oregon.First located on Swan Island, Portland’s airport was built in 1926 and dedicated by Charles Lindbergh, who flew in for the occasion, in 1927. But the island and its airfield were limited in size, and so the current site was selected and purchased in 1936. The unidentified hijacker commonly known as D.B. Cooper parachuted with $200,000 from a Northwest Orient Airlines Flight that departed from Portland International Airport in 1971. (The case remains—tantalizingly—unsolved today.) Though it’s gone through several renovations, PDX still uses a terminal first built in 1959. When a 2014 update replaced a 1987 carpet design, some nostalgic Portland residents began making products that replicated the retro pattern, like socks.The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, or TriMet, runs a MAX Red Line light rail service to the airport, which connects PDX to downtown and beyond, ending in Beaverton. Reflecting the bike friendly city, the Portland airport also provides facilities for travelers who take their bicycles to the airport. A multi-use path connecting to a regional trail system provides a safe path for cyclists to get to and from the airport, secure bicycle parking provides travelers a place to store their bikes while away, and a bike assembly and repair station—complete with bike tools—provides people flying with their bikes a place to assemble or disassemble them before or after flights.