Find the right basement in Portland, Oregon, and you’ll step into a time capsule. Entrepreneur Cabel Maxfield Sasser has posted a photo essay of his trip through a modern regional network hub that may also have once been The Oregonian’s newsroom. Around fiber optic cables that evoke our recent trip to Verizon, Sasser captures notes and calculations scrawled on the wall, snatches of newsprint, and photo collages of flappers and beachgoers. “100 years from now, when another one of you goes spelunking around this basement, that data, those bits, today’s moments, will likely be long, long gone,” says Sasser. “But the women on the wall might still be waiting.”
Exploring the vintage surroundings of Portland’s high-speed internet hub
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
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