Note: Javascript is disabled in your browser.
You need to enable Javascript if you want to see images and video.
Introducing Pacific Northwest
Located on America’s rain-lashed Pacific Rim and characterized by its vibrant, dot-com–fuelled economy, the Pacific Northwest region has stamped its mark on modern world culture like an errant 21st-century Cinderella. Culturally speaking, the manifestations are everywhere. You don’t have to be a guitar-wielding caffeine junkie to have heard of Starbucks coffee or grunge music, while other ingenious northwestern innovations such as Microsoft and Amazon.com have hijacked the technological superhighways everywhere from Beijing to Bratislava.
But it’s not all computer gadgetry and tall dark-roast skinny lattes. Immortalized by their spectacular mountains and vast primeval forests, the states of Washington and Oregon are as spectacular as they are economically vibrant. While some regions exhibit their past glories in buildings and architecture, the Pacific Northwest measures out its history in ancient trees (Washington’s red cedars are older than most of Europe’s medieval castles) and rugged mountain peaks – the snowcapped Cascades, which run like a spine from Canada to California are punctuated by a string of magnificent but menacing volcanoes.
Advertisement
