Washingtonian Doug Beyerlein believes outdoor public stairways are a window into the soul of a community.
He has created a website, PublicStairs.com, devoted to the discovery and documentation of major outdoor public stairways anywhere in the world, which features stair maps for cities throughout the world.
His map for Portland, Oregon inventories two dozen outdoor public stairways that consist of at least 100 steps. Most of the staircases are described in The Portland Stairs Book, by Laura O. Foster.
Each staircase description includes the upper and lower locations, the number of steps, elevation gain, the staircase materials (e.g. concrete, wood, packed earth, etc.), and where to find said staircase in Foster’s book.
Hat tip Tyler Tervooren on Twitter
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