When one thinks of underground tunnel systems, usually images of Paris’s Catacombs or Disney World’s utilidors are conjured up, with walls made of skulls and corporate mice riding golf carts (two very different settings, just begging to be combined.) However, an equally enthralling, mystery-ridden set of tunnels run under Portland, Oregon, and their past is dark.
The Shanghai Tunnels, or the Portland Underground, date back to the nineteenth century when they were used to store supplies carried by ships docked in the port.
The tunnels link the Willamette River docks to various hotel and restaurant basements, making it easy for goods to be transported without any of the congestion that exists aboveground.
However, it is said that the tunnels were used to carry out much more heinous deeds as well.
It is rumored that the tunnels were used to traffic, or “Shanghai,” men from the streets of Portland to help on ship crews.
These men were drugged and dropped down trap doors that led into the seedy gloam of the Portland Underground.
Women would get the same treatment, but instead of winding up aboard a ship to help with daily operations, they were transported to faraway locations and sold into prostitution rings.
The Shanghai tunnels hold multiple cells where victims would wait to meet their fate.
Much of the tunnel system has since been filled in, but portions of this shadowy prison still stand in the darkness.
Today, tours are given of the remaining segments of the tunnels, where old Opium dens and trap doors sit collecting dust.
No matter what is truth and what is fiction, and no matter how much those two absolutes overlap, it is certain that the Portland Underground has seen some shady business. History lives and breathes in the space beneath the city streets. The address given for the Shanghai Tunnels is 120 Northwest 3rd Avenue in Portland, Oregon.
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