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Graham Island (Mediterranean Sea)

Graham Island (also Graham Bank or Graham Shoal; Isola Ferdinandea; Île Julia) is a submarine volcano in the Mediterranean Sea near the island of Sicily that has, on more than one occasion, risen above the surface of the Mediterranean via volcanic action and soon thereafter been washed away. Since 300 BC this cycle of events has occurred four times.

The top of the island is presently 6 metres below sea level. The island's most recent "appearance" occurred in July 1831, but then by January 1832 the portion of the island above sea level had been entirely washed away again by the wind and the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. The 1831 version of the island was first visited by the Sicilian customs official Michele Fiorini on 17 July 1831, who planted an oar there to claim the newly emerged island for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

On 2 August 1831 Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, the captain of the first rate Royal Navy ship of the line St Vincent named the island after Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and claimed the island for the United Kingdom. In 1831, during the brief six-month lifespan of the island, a four-way dispute over the island's sovereignty arose, which was still unresolved when the island again disappeared beneath the waves in early 1832.

The island is a part of the underwater volcano Empedocles, 30 km south of Sicily, which is one of a number of submarine volcanoes known as the Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia. Seamount eruptions have raised it above sea level several times before erosion submerged it again.

During its brief life in 1831, French geologist Constant Prévost was on hand, accompanied by an artist, to witness it in July; he named it Île Julia, for its July appearance, and reported in the Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. Some observers at the time wondered if a chain of mountains would spring up, linking Sicily to Tunisia and thus upsetting the geopolitics of the region. It showed signs of volcanic activity in 2000 and 2002, forecasting a possible appearance; however, it remains 6 m under sea level.

Early history
Volcanic activity at Graham Island was first recorded during the First Punic War during the 3rd century BC. The island is believed to have appeared and disappeared four or five times since then. Several eruptions have been reported since the 17th century AD. The island is located in a volcanic area known as the Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia (Phlegraean Fields of the Sea of Sicily), in between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean Sea. Many submarine volcanoes (seamounts) exist in the region, as well as some volcanic islands such as Pantelleria.

1831 eruption and competing claims of sovereignty
Graham Island's most recent appearance as an island was in July 1831. The first reports of high seismic activity and/or eruptions occurred during a period spanning from 28 June to 10 July 1831. These reports came from the nearby town of Sciacca. On 28 June, the Royal Navy ships HMS Britannia (1820) and HMS Rapid (1829) were shaken by an earthquake between Sciacca and Pantelleria. On 4 July an odour of sulfur spread through the town reportedly in such quantities that it blackened silver. On 12 July, Ferdinando Caronna, captain of the Psyche from Naples, reported seeing smoke coming out of the sea. On 13 July, a column of smoke was clearly seen from St. Domenico. The residents believed it to be a ferry on fire. On the same day, the brig Gustavo passed through the area, confirming a bubbling in the sea that the captain thought was a sea monster. Another ship reported dead fish floating in the water.

By 17 July, a fully grown islet had formed enough to where Sicilian customs official Michele Fiorini was able to land there and to claim the island for the Kingdom of Sicily. The eruptions of 1831 resulted in the island increasing in size to about (4 km2). At its maximum (in July and August 1831), it was 4800 m in circumference and 63 m in height. It sported two small lakes, the larger of which was 20 m in circumference and 2 m in depth.

Dispute
In the months ahead, Graham Island eventually became the subject of a four-way dispute over its sovereignty. In August 1831, the volcano had risen above sea level. On 2 August 1831, Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, the captain of the first rate Royal Navy ship of the line HMS St Vincent claimed the island for the British Crown and named it after Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and planted their flag, the Union Jack. Although still only a couple of rocks, the Royal Navy thought it was very suitable as a base to control the traffic in the Mediterranean, as it was closer to the European continent than the island of Malta, a Crown Colony.

The King of the Two Sicilies also realized its strategic significance, and dispatched the corvette Etna to claim the new land and dub it Ferdinandea in honour of King Ferdinand II. Spain also declared its territorial ambitions. Last on the scene was Constant Prévost, a co-founder of the French Geological Society, who compared the eruption to a bottle of champagne being uncorked. He named the island Julia, because it was born in July, and probably also in reference to France's July Monarchy. Diplomatic disputes over the island's status ensued.

Hopes for development
During the island's brief lifespan tourists began to travel to the island to see its two small lakes. Sailors watched it when passing by, and nobles of the House of Bourbon reportedly planned to set up a holiday resort on its beaches. None of these ideas came to fruition, however, as the island soon sank back beneath the waters. The island was composed of loose tephra, easily eroded by wave action, and when the eruptive episode ended it rapidly subsided, disappearing beneath the waves in January 1832, before the issue of its sovereignty could be resolved. Fresh eruptions in 1863 caused the island to reappear briefly before again sinking below sea level. By 17 December 1831, officials reported no trace of it. As dynamically as the seamount appeared, it disappeared, defusing the conflict with it.

Recent seismic activity
After 1863, the volcano lay dormant for many decades, its summit just 8 m below sea level. In 2000, renewed seismic activity around Graham Island led volcanologists to speculate that a new eruptive episode could be imminent, and the seamount might once again become an island. In November 2002 the Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome observed minor seismic activity and gas emissions. They put the time of resurfacing at a couple of weeks or months. Italian sailors put an Italian flag on the top of the bank to avoid other nations' claims if the former island resurfaced. Despite showing signs in both 2000 and 2002, the seismicity did not lead to volcanic eruptions and Graham's summit remains about 8 m below sea level.

Year 2000 Sicilian plaque with claim of Italian sovereignty
To forestall a renewal of the sovereignty disputes, in November 2000 Italian divers planted a Sicilian flag on the top of the volcano in advance of its expected resurfacing. In a ceremony attended by Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro (a descendent of Ferdinand II) and his wife Princess Camilla, a marble plaque was lowered into the water, with Prince Carlo proclaiming that the island "will always be Sicilian".

The marble plaque, weighing 150 kg, was inscribed "This piece of land, once Ferdinandea, belonged and shall always belong to the Sicilian people." Within six months, it had fractured into twelve pieces.

Scientific study

The sudden geologic phenomenon was observed and studied by numerous scientists. Among the Germans were Hoffmann, Schultz, and Philippi. Among the English were Edward Davy and Warington Wilkinson Smyth. Among the French was Constant Prévost, who visited the island with an artist, and presented his findings in the Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. Among the Italians was Scinà Domenico (1765–1837) who published his observations in the "Effeméridi Sicilians" (1832, vol. 2), and Carlo Gemmellaro (1787–1866), teacher of geology and mineralogy at Catania University, who published "Actions of the Gioenia Academy of Catania" (1831, vol.8).

In 2006, further study revealed Graham Island to be just one part of the larger volcanic cone Empedocles.

Marine significance
The island is still referenced on marine charts, as its top is only 6 m short of breaking the surface, it thus becomes a potentially dangerous hidden obstacle for many seafaring vessels whose keels most often run deeper than this. It is also a small shoal on which near-surface maritime creatures dwell.

Nat Turner's rebellion
In August 1831, observers around the world reported a discolored sun in the sky, tinted blue, purple, or green. Researchers have attempted to discover what volcanic activity was responsible for the stratospheric discharge that caused the discoloration, with an early consensus that Babuyan Claro in the Philippines was the most likely source. But later research has concluded there was no 1831 eruption at Babuyan Claro, and some have argued the smaller activity at Graham was the likely culprit.

Whatever caused the 1831 discoloration is historically significant in the United States, because Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher in Southampton County, Virginia, took the bluish-green sun as a divine sign to begin what became known as Nat Turner's slave rebellion, which ended with the deaths of more than 200 people and led to new laws across the South further restricting the liberties of slaves, including banning their education and limiting their religious freedom.

Cinderella stamps and art coins
A number of Cinderella stamps and art coins have been issued over the years, under fictional names such as Poste Isola Ferdinandea.

In 2000, an unofficial minting of a penny was produced by a Sicilian artist, featuring the former island on one side and, unusually, a bust of Elizabeth II on the other. David Mannucci, the designer of the coin, had the idea to produce it after he "found out the existence of the ghost island" from a newspaper article. Besides the copper piece, he minted varieties in silver, copper "with protective enamel", and in silver "with protective enamel". While this Italian-made coin fittingly bears the Italian name for the former island, the art coin also features a bust of "Elizabeth II D.G.R." and bears a British denomination.

In popular culture
During its emergence it was visited by Sir Walter Scott, and it provided inspiration for James Fenimore Cooper's The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak, Alexandre Dumas, père's The Speronara, Jules Verne's Captain Antifer and The Survivors of the Chancellor and Terry Pratchett's Jingo. The island was also the subject of an episode of Citation Needed, a panel show made and hosted by British content creator Tom Scott.

title: Graham Island (Mediterranean Sea)


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Greenwood District, Tulsa

Greenwood is a historic freedom colony in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As one of the most prominent concentrations of African-American businesses in the United States during the early 20th century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street". It was burned to the ground in the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, in which a local white mob gathered and attacked the area. Between 75 and 300 Americans were killed, hundreds more were injured, and the homes of 5000 were destroyed, leaving them homeless. The massacre was one of the largest in the history of U.S. race relations, destroying the once-thriving Greenwood community.

Within ten years of the massacre, surviving residents who chose to remain in Tulsa rebuilt much of the district. They accomplished this despite the opposition of many white Tulsa political and business leaders and punitive rezoning laws enacted to prevent reconstruction. It continued as a vital black community until segregation was overturned by the federal government during the 1950s and 1960s. Desegregation encouraged black citizens to live and shop elsewhere in the city, causing Greenwood to lose much of its original vitality. Since then, city leaders have attempted to encourage other economic development activity nearby.

Roots
Many African Americans came to Oklahoma during the Native American removal. When these tribes came to Oklahoma, Africans held enslaved or living among them as tribal members (notably in the case of the Seminoles) were forced to move with them. This proved problematic as rules concerning the freedom of African Americans differed between tribes. Others later traveled to Oklahoma for the land rushes in 1889 through 1891 and continued in the years leading to 1907, the year Oklahoma became a state, hoping that a majority-black population could build a firewall against further extension of the system of racial degradation and segregation known as Jim Crow. Oklahoma represented the hope of change and provided a chance for African Americans to not only leave the lands of slavery but oppose the harsh racism of their previous homes. They travelled to Oklahoma by wagons, horses, trains, and even on foot.

Many of the settlers were relatives of Native Americans who had traveled on foot with the Five Civilized Tribes along the Trail of Tears. Others were the descendants of people who had fled to Indian Territory. Many Black residents were also from the various Muskogee-speaking peoples, such as Creeks and Seminoles, while some had been adopted by the tribes after the Emancipation Proclamation.

White residents of Tulsa referred to the area north of the Frisco railroad tracks as "Little AfricaGreat Park development (formerly Newhall Ranch)". The success of Black-owned businesses there led Booker T. Washington to visit in 1905 and encourage residents to continue to build and cooperate among themselves, reinforcing what he called "industrial capacity" and thus securing their ownership and independence. Washington highlighted that he had directed the creation of a 4,000 acre totally black-owned district on the edge of Tuskegee, under the supervision of C. W. Greene, to model Washington's vision; it was named Greenwood and formally organized in 1901. The Tulsa community was formally organized the year after Washington's visit, 1906, with the name Greenwood. By 1921, it was home to about 10,000 black residents.

Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa was important because it ran north for over a mile from the Frisco Railroad yards, and it was one of the few streets that did not cross through both black and white neighborhoods. Greenwood was home to a thriving Black commercial district, whose many red brick buildings belonged to Black Americans and housed thriving businesses, including grocery stores, banks, libraries, and much more; one of the most affluent African-American communities in the country, leading to the nickname, "Black Wall Street".

O. W. Gurley
Around the start of the 20th century, O. W. Gurley, a wealthy black landowner from Arkansas, came to what was then known as Indian Territory to participate in the Oklahoma Land run of 1889. The young entrepreneur had just resigned from a presidential appointment under president Grover Cleveland in order to strike out on his own.

In 1906, Gurley moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he purchased 40 acres of land which was "only to be sold to colored".

Among Gurley's first businesses was a rooming house which was located on a dusty trail near the railroad tracks. This road was given the name Greenwood Avenue, named for a city in Mississippi. The area became very popular among black migrants fleeing the oppression in Mississippi. They would find refuge in Gurley's building, as the racial persecution from the south was non-existent on Greenwood Avenue.

In addition to his rooming house, Gurley built three two-story buildings and five residences and bought an 80 acre farm in Rogers County. Gurley also founded what is today Vernon AME Church. He also helped build a black Masonic lodge and an employment agency.

This implementation of "colored" segregation set the Greenwood boundaries of separation that still exist: Pine Street to the north, Archer Street and the Frisco tracks to the south, Cincinnati Street on the west, and Lansing Street on the east.

Another black American entrepreneur, J.B. Stradford and his wife Bertie Eleanor Wiley Stradford, arrived in Tulsa in 1899. He believed that black people had a better chance of economic progress if they pooled their resources, worked together and supported each other's businesses. He bought large tracts of real estate in the northeastern part of Tulsa, which he had subdivided and sold exclusively to other blacks. Gurley and a number of other blacks soon followed suit. Stradford later built the Stradford Hotel on Greenwood, where blacks could enjoy the amenities of the downtown hotels who served only whites. It was said to be the largest black-owned hotel in the United States.

In 1914, Gurley's net worth was reported to be $150,000 (about $3 million in 2018 dollars). And he was made a sheriff's deputy by the city of Tulsa to police Greenwood's residents, which resulted in some viewing him with suspicion. By 1921, Gurley owned more than one hundred properties in Greenwood and had an estimated net worth between $500,000 and $1 million (between $6.8 million and $13.6 million in 2018 dollars).

Gurley's prominence and wealth were short lived, and the authority vested in him as a sheriff's deputy was violently overwhelmed in the race massacre. In a matter of moments, the terrorist mob destroyed all he had built. During the race massacre, The Gurley Hotel at 112 N. Greenwood, the street's first commercial enterprise, valued at $55,000, was destroyed, and with it Brunswick Billiard Parlor and Dock Eastmand & Hughes Cafe. Gurley also owned a two-story building at 119 N. Greenwood. It housed Carter's Barbershop, Hardy Rooms, a pool hall, and cigar store. All were reduced to ruins. By his account and court records, the mob destroyed nearly $2.7 million in real estate (in 2018 dollars), and much of his life's work. According to the memoirs of Greenwood pioneer, B.C. Franklin, Gurley left Greenwood for Los Angeles, California. Gurley and his wife, Emma, moved to a 4-bedroom home in South Los Angeles and ran a small hotel. He was honored in a 2009 documentary film called, ''Before They Die! The Road to Reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Survivors''.

Black Wall Street
The Greenwood district in Tulsa came to be known as "Black Wall Street", one of the most commercially successful and affluent majority African-American communities in the United States. Booker T. Washington referred to the Greenwood neighborhood as “Negro Wall Street.” Many Americans, including African-Americans, had moved to Oklahoma in hopes of gaining a shot at quick economic gains through the mining and oil industries. Even though African-Americans constituted a small percentage of the overall population in Oklahoma, the percentage of African-Americans in Tulsa had significantly increased to around 12.3 percent during the oil boom. Many African-Americans had come from the Deep South and Kansas because of the opportunity to strike gold because of the rich oil fields. During the Jim Crow era, African-Americans were not allowed to make purchases or services in predominantly white areas. In particular, Oklahoma was known to have some of the harshest and most unjust Jim Crow laws in the country. Some economists theorize this forced many African-Americans to spend their money where they would feel welcomed, effectively insulating cash flow to within the black community and allowing Greenwood to flourish and prosper.

On "Black Wall Street", there were African-American attorneys, real estate agents, entrepreneurs, and doctors who offered their services in the neighborhood. One primary example of the black entrepreneurial spirit is illustrated by J.B. Stradford. He had graduated from Indiana University with a law degree and had moved to Greenwood to purchase various land vacancies in the area. After buying these vacant spaces, he would then sell them to African-American residents for redevelopment so that these empty spaces could be transformed into residential houses and profitable businesses. By 1921, Stradford had been considered one of the wealthiest African-Americans in the country as he owned numerous properties in Greenwood and even had his hotel named after him: Stratford Hotel. In addition to Mr. Stradford, there were also investments and reinvestments into the community. One executive of the local YMCA recalled that there were several barbershops, several grocery stores, and even a funeral home service. Greenwood was known to be an active religious community as there were numerous black-owned churches, Christian youth services, and other religious organizations. In addition to Tulsa, there are stories of other "Black Wall Street" across the country. On May 29, 2021, TIME published a story called Beyond Greenwood: The Historic Legacies and Overlooked Stories of America’s ‘Black Wall Streets'.

Foundation of resentment
Many white residents felt intimidated by the prosperity, growth, and size of "Black Wall StreetGreat Park development (formerly Newhall Ranch)". Not only was Greenwood, Tulsa expanding in population, it was expanding its physical boundaries, which eventually collided with the boundaries of white neighborhoods. According to several newspapers and articles at the time, there were reports of hateful letters sent to prominent business leaders within "Black Wall Street," which demanded that they stop overstepping their boundaries into the white segregated portion of Tulsa. White residents grew increasingly resentful about the wealth of the Greenwood community. The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 started when police accused a Black shoe shiner of assaulting a white woman.

Improvements
Revitalization and preservation efforts in the 1990s and 2000s resulted in tourism initiatives and memorials. John Hope Franklin Greenwood Reconciliation Park and the Greenwood Cultural Center honor the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre, although the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce plans a larger museum to be built with participation from the National Park Service.

In 2008, Tulsa announced that it sought to move the city's minor league baseball team, the Tulsa Drillers, to a new stadium, now known as ONEOK Field to be constructed in the Greenwood District. The proposed development includes a hotel, baseball stadium, and an expanded mixed-use district. Along with the new stadium, there will be extra development for the city blocks that surround the stadium.

Legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre
After the Tulsa Race Massacre, many residents had promised to rebuild after the massive destruction. Within ten years after the massacre, surviving residents who chose to remain in Tulsa rebuilt much of the district. They accomplished this despite the opposition of many white Tulsa political and business leaders and punitive rezoning laws enacted to prevent reconstruction. There were over 240 black businesses in Greenwood in 1941. It continued as a vital black community until segregation was overturned by the federal government during the 1950s and 1960s. Desegregation encouraged black citizens to live and shop elsewhere in the city, causing Greenwood to lose much of its original vitality. Since then, city leaders have attempted to encourage other economic development activity nearby. Some residents attempted to sue the city and filed insurance claims against it, but all of those claims were denied by the city government. People within the African-American community after the Tulsa Race Massacre rarely discussed the historic significance of Greenwood after the Tulsa Race Massacre because of fear that it might occur again. In 1996, a commission was established to examine recommendations to compensate and support the descendants of the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In 2001, a final report was released that highly recommended that victims’ descendants receive full reparations. Alfred Brophy, an American legal scholar, outlined four specific reasons why survivors and their descendants should receive full compensation: the damage affected African-American families, the city was culpable, and city leaders acknowledged that they had a moral responsibility to help rebuild the infrastructure after the race massacre.

More recently, the Greenwood District has called for the removal of the I-244 corridor, which is seen as just as damaging to the community as the Tulsa race massacre.

Historic district
The city of Tulsa's Greenwood Historic District comprises an area bounded by the Crosstown Expressway (I-244) on the north, Elgin Avenue on the west, Greenwood Avenue on the east and the Frisco tracks on the south. The National Register of Historic Places Greenwood Historic District is slightly smaller, including 100 to 300 N. Greenwood Ave, but also includes 419 North Elgin Ave. The City of Tulsa submitted an application to the U.S. Department of the Interior for the Greenwood Historic District on September 29, 2011. On August 8, 2012, the Coordinator of the National Register Program wrote the Tulsa Preservation Commission that the proposed District would be renamed as the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. In 2022, Greenwood Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2023, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate to create Historic Greenwood District—Black Wall Street National Monument.

Greenwood Rising History Center
The Greenwood Rising History Center was completed in 2021 at 21 North Greenwood Avenue on the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street.

Greenwood Cultural Center
The Greenwood Cultural Center, dedicated on October 22, 1995, was created as a tribute to Greenwood's history and as a symbol of hope for the community's future. It has a museum, an African American art gallery, a large banquet hall, and it housed the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame until 2007. The total cost of the Center was almost $3 million. The Center plays a key role in the reconstruction and unity of the Greenwood Historic District.

The Greenwood Cultural Center sponsors and promotes education and cultural events showcasing African American heritage. It also provides positive images of North Tulsa to the community, and attracts a diversity of visitors to the Center and to the city of Tulsa.

In 2011, the Greenwood Cultural Center lost all funding from the State of Oklahoma, threatening its existence. The community responded with donations and GoFundMe campaigns, and the Cherokee Nation contributed to its summer programs.

Michael Bloomberg donated one million dollars to the Greenwood Art Project in 2019 and made the Greenwood Cultural Center his first stop on his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 19, 2020.

In 2021, President Biden visited the Greenwood Cultural Center during the community's 100-year commemoration of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park
Ground was broken in 2008 at 415 North Detroit Avenue for a proposed Reconciliation Park to commemorate the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. John Hope Franklin, son of B. C. Franklin and a notable historian, attended the groundbreaking ceremony. After his death in 2009, the park was renamed John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park. Attractions include two sculptures and a dozen bronze informational plaques. It is a park primarily designed for education and reflection, and does not contain facilities for sports or other recreation.

Originally funded by the State of Oklahoma, the City of Tulsa and private donors, it is now owned by the city and managed by a nonprofit organization, the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation.

Notable people

 * Viola Fletcher, survivor of the Tulsa race massacre
 * The Gap Band, R&B Group

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Greenwood District, Tulsa


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Noel Fielding

Noel Fielding (born 21 May 1973) is an English comedian and actor. He was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside Julian Barratt in the 2000s, and has been a co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off since 2017. He is known for his dark and surreal comedic style.

In the 1990s, Fielding began performing stand-up comedy and met Barratt on the comedy circuit. Together, they produced a 2001 radio series called The Boosh for BBC Radio London. This was followed by the television show The Mighty Boosh, which ran for three series on BBC Three from 2004 to 2007. The show generated a cult following and won a variety of awards.

During the 2000s, Fielding also had smaller roles in a number of comedy shows for Channel 4 including Nathan Barley, The IT Crowd, AD/BC: A Rock Opera, and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. After The Mighty Boosh, he wrote and starred in two series of a solo show for Channel 4 called Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, which ran between 2012 and 2014. He also appeared as himself as a team captain on the BBC Two comedy panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 2009 to 2015 and as a guest on Richard Ayoade's Travel Man series.

Fielding has also exhibited his paintings in London and collaborated with Fendi for their autumn/winter 2021 menswear collection. He is the founder of the band Loose Tapestries, which he formed with Kasabian guitarist Sergio Pizzorno.

Early life
Fielding was born in the Westminster area of London on 21 May 1973, the son of Royal Mail manager Ray Fielding (born 1953) and Yvonne Fagan. He is of French descent through his grandmother. His comedic partner Julian Barratt described Fielding’s upbringing as "feral"; according to an article in The Sunday Times, Fielding's parents "had lots of parties" during his childhood, and Fielding has described how they would party through the night and that he would have to step over the bodies of their sleeping friends in the mornings as he got up.

When Fielding was three years old, his father remarried, and Fielding was mostly raised by his grandmother. He describes his grandmother as someone he had a lot of respect for, saying in 2011 to The Guardian, “My grandma is really strong. I like strong women. That's what I respond to." His father and stepmother Diane would later become more involved in parenting during Fielding’s mother’s illness in the 1980s. His mother had two more children before dying in 1990 aged 37 years old, from complications caused by liver damage. His younger paternal half-brother, Michael, later played various characters in Fielding's television comedy shows, and his father and stepmother would also appear. Ray Fielding had several cameos as Chris de Burgh on The Mighty Boosh.

At the age of 15, Fielding became a goth and had goth girlfriends. At this time he first tried using makeup and said he loved being dressed up by his girlfriends.

Fielding was educated at Croydon School of Art, then studied for a BA in Graphic Design and Advertising at Buckinghamshire New University, then called Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in High Wycombe, where he lived with friends and future collaborators Dave Brown and Nigel Coan. He graduated in 1995.

Stand-up comedy
In 2010, Fielding was supposed to perform a solo tour across the country. It was cancelled so he could concentrate on writing The Mighty Boosh film with Julian Barratt and creating an album. Fielding announced via Twitter that he was too busy to do the tour. In 2015, he told The Guardian that the film was something he talked about writing with Barratt. His album was released in June 2016. In 2010 and 2014, he took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Montreal's Just For Laughs comedy festival had to be moved online, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. On 20 October 2020 Fielding and Jimmy Carr live streamed a conversation, from their respective homes.

The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh has won the Shockwaves NME Best TV Award three times: in 2007, 2008, and 2010.

Television

At Bill Bailey's request, Fielding stood in as a team captain for three episodes during series 21 of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He also achieved a record for the highest team score ever on the show. When Bailey returned, presenter Simon Amstell made various jokes about Fielding's departure. In 2009, Bailey left the show and Fielding became one of the regular team captains. According to Neil Gaiman's blog, Fielding was scheduled to appear in the film Stardust, but had to drop out due to ill health. He also participated twice with Russell Brand in 2006 and 2007 on the annual quiz show The Big Fat Quiz of the Year. He participated again in 2010, 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019, with Richard Ayoade.

In 2011, he took part in Catherine Tate's TV movie Laughing at the Noughties in which he and other British comedians discussed the comedy highlights of the noughties.

Fielding produced his first solo series for Channel 4 network's E4 channel in 2011, as the broadcaster invested an additional £5 million in its comedy budget following the cancellation of reality show Big Brother. Fielding said of the project, tentatively titled Noel Fielding: Boopus: "I want to make something in the spirit of Spike Milligan or the Kenny Everett Show but using modern techniques. Blending filmed comedy with animation. Television needs a madman! I want the show to be psychedelic and beautiful but have charm and personality. If Dalí made a show hopefully it would look like this." The show began broadcasting in January 2012, titled Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy. The show's second series, titled Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy 2: Tales From Painted Hawaii, was first broadcast on E4 in 2014.

Also in 2011, Fielding performed Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" dance routine for Series 3 of Let's Dance for Comic Relief, and reached the grand final.

In March 2017 it was revealed that Fielding would co-host the upcoming series of The Great British Bake Off alongside Sandi Toksvig.

Fielding appeared as a contestant on Series 4 of the Dave comedy panel game Taskmaster in 2017, hosted by Greg Davies and Alex Horne: he was the overall series winner.

In January 2018, he was a panellist on QI alongside Russell Brand and Aisling Bea.

In 2024, Fielding will play as Dick Turpin in an upcoming Apple TV+ comedy series, The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.

Radio
In November 2007, Fielding starred in five episodes of BBC Radio 2 show Vic Reeves' House Arrest as a local vagrant who knocks on Reeves' door once a week to ask for work.

Music
Fielding has appeared in several music videos, including Mint Royale's "Blue Song", alongside Julian Barratt, Nick Frost and Michael Smiley. The video was directed by Edgar Wright and served as the inspiration for the opening sequence of his film Baby Driver (2017). He also made a brief appearance in the video for Razorlight's "In the Morning". He appeared in music videos for the Robots in Disguise songs "Girl" (alongside Chris Corner who was, at the time, boyfriend to Sue Denim), "The Tears", and "Turn It Up". In 2009, Noel was involved in the Kasabian video "Vlad the Impaler", in which he plays the titular character, and reprised the role at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival.

The music video was directed by Richard Ayoade. He was referenced in Kasabian's "La Fée Verte", a track on their Velociraptor! album (his friend Sergio Pizzorno said "The line, 'I met Dalí in the street.' Dalí is Noel Fielding. And he is the modern-day Dalí"). Fielding also makes a brief appearance as Vlad in the video for another Kasabian song, "Re-Wired", riding a five-seater bicycle with the band, and appears as a patient in a psychiatric hospital in "You're In Love With a Psycho", in which he re-enacts the broken mirror routine from the Marx Brothers film 'Duck Soup' with Pizzorno and Tom Meighan. He has also appeared in Kate Bush's music video "Deeper Understanding" as a means of thanks for the Let's Dance For Comic Relief performance.

Fielding paired up with Sergio Pizzorno (Kasabian) to form a band 'Loose Tapestries', and released two albums and a Christmas single

Art
He held his first exhibition, entitled Psychedelic Dreams of the Jelly Fox, at Maison Bertaux, a patisserie in Greek Street, Soho in early 2008. There Fielding listed some of his inspirations as Henri Rousseau, René Magritte, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, and Dexter Dalwood. He has stated that he has been heavily influenced by the works of Salvador Dalí. A second exhibition entitled Bryan Ferry vs the Jelly Fox took place at Maison Bertaux, from 5 July 2010 through to 5 January 2011.

On 6 September 2011, Fielding received an honorary master's degree from Buckinghamshire New University for his ongoing interest in the graphics area and support for many art organisations.

In October 2011, Fielding released an art book called Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton, which he produced along with The Mighty Boosh cast member Dave Brown. It features many of his old and new paintings, drawings and photography.

Fielding's video installation of The Jelly Fox was shown at the Saatchi Gallery, and in 2012 he created a unique piece inspired by The Beatles for Liverpool Love at the Museum of Liverpool. In March 2015, his exhibition He Wore Dreams Around Unkind Faces was shown at the Royal Albert Hall. In January 2021, the luxury fashion house Fendi unveiled a collection featuring abstract takes on the brand's logo, created by Fielding.

Personal life
Fielding was formerly in a relationship with Robots in Disguise lead vocalist Dee Plume, who made minor appearances in The Mighty Boosh and in its live adaptations. He began dating radio DJ Lliana Bird sometime around 2010. They reside in the Highgate area of London. Their first child, a daughter named Dali (after artist Salvador Dalí), was born in 2018. The couple's second daughter, Iggy (after Iggy Pop), was born in August 2020.

In 2009, a Sunday Times article revealed that Fielding developed alcohol-induced hepatitis during his college years; he said that he was helped through this time by his friend and collaborator Nigel Coan. This forced him not to drink alcohol for six months, which led him to become teetotal for a couple of years. He said, "I used to be able to enjoy myself with just nothing. I'd stay up till four in the morning, with everyone else being drunk. Just make a bit of effort and you can get used to it."

Fielding was named one of GQ's 50 best dressed British men in 2015.

title: Noel Fielding


text:
Caribbean Plate

The Caribbean Plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate underlying Central America and the Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of South America.

Roughly 3.2 e6km2 in area, the Caribbean Plate borders the North American Plate, the South American Plate, the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate. These borders are regions of intense seismic activity, including frequent earthquakes, occasional tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.

Boundary types
The northern boundary with the North American Plate is a transform or strike-slip boundary that runs from the border area of Belize, Guatemala (Motagua Fault), and Honduras in Central America, eastward through the Cayman trough along the Swan Islands Transform Fault before joining the southern boundary of the Gonâve Microplate. East of the Mid-Cayman Rise this continues as the Walton fault zone and the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone into eastern Hispaniola. From there it continues into Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Part of the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean (roughly 8400 m), lies along this border. The Puerto Rico Trench is at a complex transition from the subduction boundary to the south and the transform boundary to the west.

The eastern boundary is a subduction zone, the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, where oceanic crust of the South American Plate is being subducted under the Caribbean Plate. Subduction forms the volcanic islands of the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc from the Virgin Islands in the north to the islands off the coast of Venezuela in the south. This boundary contains seventeen active volcanoes, most notably Soufriere Hills on Montserrat; Mount Pelée on Martinique; La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe; Soufrière Saint Vincent on Saint Vincent; and the submarine volcano Kick 'em Jenny which lies about 10 km north of Grenada. Large historical earthquakes in 1839 and 1843 in this region are possibly megathrust earthquakes.

Along the geologically complex southern boundary, the Caribbean Plate interacts with the South American Plate forming Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago (all on the Caribbean Plate), and islands off the coast of Venezuela (including the Leeward Antilles) and Colombia. This boundary is in part the result of transform faulting, along with thrust faulting and some subduction. The rich Venezuelan petroleum fields possibly result from this complex plate interaction. The Caribbean Plate is moving eastward about 22 mm per year in relation to the South American plate. In Venezuela, much of the movement between the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate occurs along the faults of Boconó, El Pilar and San Sebastián.

The western portion of the plate is occupied by Central America. The Cocos Plate in the Pacific Ocean is subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate, just off the western coast of Central America. This subduction forms the volcanoes of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, also known as the Central America Volcanic Arc.

Origin
The usual theory of the origin of the Caribbean Plate was confronted by a contrasting theory in 2002.

The mainstream theory holds that it is the Caribbean large igneous province (CLIP) which formed in the Pacific Ocean tens of millions of years ago, perhaps originating at the Galapagos Hotspot. As the Atlantic Ocean widened, North America and South America were pushed westward, separated for a time by oceanic crust. The Pacific Ocean floor subducted under this oceanic crust between the continents. The CLIP drifted into the same area, but as it was less dense and thicker than the surrounding oceanic crust, it did not subduct, but rather overrode the ocean floor, continuing to move eastward relative to North America and South America. With the formation of the Isthmus of Panama 3 million years ago, it ultimately lost its connection to the Pacific.

The more recent theory asserts that the Caribbean Plate came into being from an Atlantic hotspot which no longer exists. This theory points to evidence of the absolute motion of the Caribbean Plate which indicates that it moves westward, not east, and that its apparent eastward motion is only relative to the motions of the North American Plate and the South American Plate.

First American land bridge
The Caribbean Plate began its eastward migration (Ma) during the Late Cretaceous. This migration eventually resulted in a volcanic arc stretching from northwestern South America to the Yucatán Peninsula, today represented by the Aves Islands and the Lesser and Greater Antilles. This arc was the subject of constant tectonism and sea-level fluctuation, but lasted until the mid-Eocene and intermittently formed a land bridge along the eastern and northern boundaries of the Caribbean Plate. What would eventually become present-day Central America, part of the western plate boundary, was still isolated in the Pacific.

, during the Late Paleocene, a local sea-level low-stand assisted by the continental uplift of the western margin of South America, resulted in a fully operative land bridge over which several groups of mammals apparently took part in an interchange. For example, specimens have been assigned to xenarthra, didelphidae, and phorusrhacidae from Eocene North America and Europe (although these have been criticized), and Peradectes from Paleocene South America.

Great American Interchange
The Great American Interchange in which land and freshwater fauna migrated between North America and South America via the uplifted western margin of the Caribbean Plate (Central America) was a later event, which peaked dramatically around 2.6 million years (Ma) ago during the Piacenzian age.

title: Caribbean Plate


text:
Interstate 205 (California)

Interstate 205 (I-205) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in the San Joaquin Valley in Northern California. It runs from I-5 west to I-580. Along with those highways, I-205 forms the north side of a triangle around the city of Tracy. The route provides access from the San Francisco Bay Area to the northern San Joaquin Valley.

When I-205 opened in December 1970, it replaced 11th Street, which passed through downtown Tracy, as part of the primary all-land connection between the Bay Area and Sacramento until the Carquinez Bridge opened in 1927 and carried the Lincoln Highway and later US Route 50 (US 50). 11th Street is now signed as I-205 Business (I-205 Bus.).

Route description
I-205 begins at the bottom of I-580's eight-lane descent from Altamont Pass into the San Joaquin Valley. Here I-580 turns southeast to a junction with I-5, paralleling the California Aqueduct and Delta–Mendota Canal along the foothills, while I-205 continues east as a six-lane roadway, immediately crossing both waterways. The first interchange is with Mountain House Parkway, formerly Patterson Pass Road, which serves the planned community of Mountain House. Next is a split with I-205 Bus., a business loop that follows 11th Street through Tracy. As I-205 curves east-northeast and back east through the northern part of Tracy, it has interchanges with Grant Line Road (County Route J4 [CR J4] toward Antioch), Tracy Boulevard (CR J13 through downtown Tracy), and MacArthur Drive. After several miles without an interchange, the highway ends at a merge with I-5, where traffic can continue northeast to the junction with State Route 120 (SR 120) near Manteca and then east on SR 120 toward Yosemite National Park or north on I-5 toward Stockton.

As it connects to I-580, I-205 is a frequently-congested major commuter route to the Bay Area. Signs on eastbound I-580 instruct travelers to take I-205, SR 120, and SR 99 to reach Modesto instead of using the direct, but non-freeway, route SR 132. I-205 also serves to connect the Bay Area with popular weekend destinations such as Yosemite National Park, Reno, and Lake Tahoe. The Altamont Corridor Express provides commuters with an alternate route over Altamont Pass to San Jose and San Francisco, the latter through a transfer to Bay Area Rapid Transit.

I-205 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. It is officially designated as the Robert T. Monagan Freeway, after the California legislator who represented the area from 1961 to 1973.

History
When the Department of Engineering laid out the initial state highway system after the state's voters approved a bond issue to pay for it in 1910, they included Route 5, connecting Santa Cruz and Oakland with Stockton via Altamont Pass. San Joaquin County paved the portion near Tracy with asphalt with their own bond issue, passed in 1909, and the state later resurfaced it with concrete. In addition, the new concrete road bypassed Banta, which the old county road had passed through via Banta Road, F Street, and Grant Line Road. Otherwise, the road was relatively direct, coming down from Altamont Pass onto Grant Line Road, following Byron Highway into Tracy and leaving east and northeasterly on 11th Street to the San Joaquin River at the Mossdale Crossing. The Lincoln Highway Association chose this route in 1913 for their transcontinental highway, where it remained until the Carquinez Bridge opened in 1927, creating a shorter route via Vallejo. In 1926, the American Association of State Highway Officials designated the Stockton–Bay Area route as US 48, which was absorbed by an extension of US 50 by the early 1930s.

A 1938 four-lane bypass of the old road around Altamont Pass was extended east to Tracy as a four-lane expressway on November 16, 1954. By then, the entire route between the Bay Area and Stockton was four or more lanes, following the present I-580 (eastbound lanes where they separate ), I-205, 11th Street, and I-5 from Livermore through Tracy to Stockton. During early planning for the Interstate Highway System, the main north–south route through California (now I-5) was to use SR 99 through the San Joaquin Valley; a connection to the Bay Area split near Modesto and roughly followed US 50. The Bureau of Public Roads approved a move to the proposed Westside Freeway in May 1957, and, in November, they added a North Tracy Bypass that would connect I-5 and I-580. Construction began in the late 1960s, incorporating part of the 1954 expressway and a new alignment bypassing Tracy to the north, and the $14-million (equivalent to $ in ) road opened to traffic on December 21, 1970. (A short piece at the west end, including the bridge over the California Aqueduct, was upgraded several years earlier when I-580 and I-5 to the south were built. )

Since 1970, I-205 has seen few changes. The largest have been widening from four to six lanes west of I-205 Bus. in 1999 and converting two diamond interchanges to partial cloverleafs—Grant Line Road in about 1997 and Mountain House Parkway in 2007 (including ramp meters). As of mid-2009, I-205 has been widened to six lanes (three in each direction) for its entire route. Also, the 1970s concrete pavement has been resurfaced with fresh asphalt from the junction of I-5 to due east of the 11th street connector ramp.

Future
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has plans to improve merging distances by constructing auxiliary lanes between the interchanges and to add new interchanges at Lammers Road and Paradise Road. Caltrans is also planning to add one high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane in each direction between I-580 and I-5.

Tracy business loop
Interstate 205 Business (I-205 Bus.) is a locally maintained business route. It locally follows 11th Street, the historic four-lane alignment of US 50, through Tracy. The route begins at a split with I-205 west of the city. After passing through downtown Tracy, it curves northeast at a junction with former SR 33, which has been truncated to the south at I-5. The final stretch of I-205 Bus. runs diagonally to a merge with I-5, which comes from the south and continues northeast along the former US 50 alignment. The east end of I-205 Bus. is about 0.75 mi southwest of the end of I-205; normally, I-205 Bus. would return to I-205 at both ends, but, here, I-205 and I-205 Bus. both end at I-5.

title: Interstate 205 (California)


text:
Schechter Letter

The Schechter Letter, also called the Genizah Letter or Cambridge Document, was discovered in the Cairo Geniza by Solomon Schechter in 1912. It is an anonymous Khazar letter discussing several matters including the wars of the early 940s, involving the Byzantine Empire, the Khazar Khaganate, and Kievan Rus'. Scholars have debated its authenticity.

The Letter
The Schechter Letter has been interpreted as a communique from an unnamed Khazar author to an unidentified Jewish dignitary. Some believe that the Schechter Letter was addressed to Hasdai ibn Shaprut by a Constantinopolitan Khazar after his first, unsuccessful attempt to correspond with the Khazar king Joseph (see Khazar Correspondence).

Some recent historiography has noted the names echoing Jewish mystical traditions and lack of any corroborating historical sources to its account may place it in a tradition of fantastical writing about the lost tribes of Israel.

The Letter was included in the Genizah Collection donated by Schechter to Cambridge University in 1898. Most of the folio is unreadable and only two surviving blocs of text exist. This makes identifying the precise nature of the letter, communique or legend unclear.

The conversion text
The Schechter Letter contains an account of the Khazar conversion that differs from that of the Khazar Correspondence and the Kuzari. In the Schechter Letter account, Jews from Persia and Armenia migrated to Khazaria to flee persecution, where they mingled with the nomadic Khazars, eventually assimilating almost totally. Then a strong war-leader arose (in the Schechter Letter, he is named Sabriel), who succeeded in having himself named ruler of the Khazars. Sabriel happened to be remotely descended from the early Jewish settlers, and his wife Serakh convinced him to adopt Judaism, in which his people followed him. What follows in the Letter is largely lost except for a few fragments.

The account of the Khazar kingdom matches up with no Muslim, Jewish or Byzantine source from the period regarding wars of migration. It also differs radically from every other alleged source on the Khazar conversion to Judaism and in its naming of the ruling class. The names of the figures involved, Sabriel being the name of an angel in the Jewish mystical tradition, Serah being a biblical figure and the claim of descent from the tribe of Simeon whose demise is chronicled in the bible, strongly indicate the text is an unreliable source and heavily influenced in a rich Jewish tradition of wish fulfilment and mystical writing about the ten lost tribes of Israel.

HLGW and Romanus
The next substantial section of the Letter to survive tells of a recent (to the author) event - an invasion of Khazaria by HLGW (most probably Oleg), prince (knyaz) of Rus, instigated by the Byzantine Emperor Romanus I Lecapenus. Romanus, a persecutor of the Jews, may have been seeking to counter Khazar retaliation for his policies. According to the Letter, HLGW was defeated by the Khazar general Pesakh in the Taman region. Faced with execution by the Khazars, HLGW agreed to attack Constantinople (indeed, such an attack took place in 941), where he was defeated and fled to Persia, where he died. If Oleg is indeed Helgi (HLGW) and participated in these wars, the Genizah Letter is at odds with the Primary Chronicle, which claims Oleg died in 912, while the Novgorod First Chronicle claims he died in 922.

Implications of the text
If taken literally and not as a legend of lost tribes, the letter challenges the conventional narrative of the Khazars. First, its version of the conversion posits a partially Judean descent for Khazar contemporaries of the author. Whether or not this is an accurate account, it indicates that the Khazars saw themselves as fully integrated members of world Jewry.

The letter states that in the early days after Khazars' conversion to Judaism, some Alanians already practised Judaism, to a degree that Alania came to save Khazaria from its enemies (lines 52–53). This is the only evidence corroborating the record of Benjamin of Tudela about Judaism in Alania.

In addition, if HLGW in the text refers to Oleg (Helgi), and he participated in these wars, the Genizah Letter would be at odds with the Primary Chronicle, which claims Oleg died in 912, while the Novgorod First Chronicle claims he died in 922. Instead of his successor Igor of Kiev reigning from 912 until his murder in 944, as the Primary Chronicle claims, Constantine Zuckerman (1995) concluded that Igor only reigned from the summer of 941 to the winter of 945. In the years prior, many scholars had disregarded the Schechter Letter account; Zuckerman has suggested that the Schechter Letter's account is in harmony with various other Rus' sources, and it suggests a struggle within the early Rus polity between factions loyal to Oleg and to Igor, a struggle that Oleg ultimately lost. Zuckerman posited that the early chronology of the Rus' had to be re-determined in light of these sources. Among the beliefs of Zuckerman and others who have analyzed these sources are that the Khazars did not lose Kiev until the early 10th century (rather than 882, the traditional date), that Igor was not Rurik's son but rather a more distant descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.

title: Schechter Letter


text:
Interstate 205 (Oregon–Washington)

Interstate 205 (I-205) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon and Washington, United States. The north–south freeway serves as a bypass route of I-5 along the east side of Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. It intersects several major highways and serves Portland International Airport.

The freeway is 37 mi long and connects to I-5 at both of its termini: to the south in Tualatin, Oregon, and to the north in Salmon Creek, Washington. I-205 is named the Veterans Memorial Highway and East Portland Freeway No. 64 in Oregon (see Oregon highways and routes). From Oregon City to Vancouver, the corridor is paralleled by a multi-use bicycle and pedestrian trail, as well as portions of the MAX Light Rail system between Clackamas and northeastern Portland.

A freeway to serve as an eastern bypass of Portland and Vancouver was conceived in a 1943 plan for the area, and in the 1950s was included in the federal government's preliminary plans for the Interstate Highway System. In 1958, I-205 was assigned as the designation for the eastern bypass; the Oregon state government initially planned it to travel east through Lake Oswego and close to inner neighborhoods of Portland but protests from several communities led to the route of I-205 being moved further east and south into other areas of Clackamas County.

Construction began in 1967 with work on the Abernethy Bridge over the Willamette River, which opened in 1970. By 1972, I-205 was extended west to Tualatin and north to Gladstone but the Portland section was delayed by opposition from local governments. A six-lane design was chosen as a compromise, which allowed for the freeway to reach Portland in 1977. The Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge, spanning the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver, opened on December 15, 1982. The bridge connected to the Washington section of I-205, which had been completed in two stages between 1975 and 1976. The remaining 6.6 mi in Portland opened on March 8, 1983, and two years later, additional ramps were constructed to connect with I-84.

Route description
I-205 functions primarily as a bypass of I-5 in the Portland metropolitan area, and serves Vancouver, Washington, and the eastern suburban areas of Portland, Oregon. It is listed as part of the National Highway System, which identifies routes that are important to the national economy, defense, and mobility, and Washington state recognizes it as a Highway of Statewide Significance. The Oregon portion of I-205 is designated as East Portland Freeway No. 64 under the state's named highway system. In 2000, the Oregon portion was designated by the state legislature as the Veterans Memorial Highway, and has since been used for an annual vehicle convoy to mark Veterans Day.

Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) maintain I-205 within their respective states. Both agencies conduct annual surveys of traffic on segments of the freeway, the results of which are expressed in terms of annual average daily traffic (AADT), a measure of traffic volume for any average day of the year. In 2018, average traffic volumes on the Oregon portion ranged from 86,800 in Stafford to 170,900 near Division Street in Portland. In 2019, the Washington portion ranged from 47,000 in Salmon Creek to 160,000 on the Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge. The Glenn L. Jackson Bridge is the busier of the two main bridges over the Columbia River in the Portland area; the older Interstate Bridge on I-5 carried a daily average of 138,500 vehicles in 2019.

Washington and Clackamas counties

I-205 begins at a semi-directional T interchange with I-5 in eastern Tualatin, a suburb in Washington County, Oregon. The four-lane freeway travels east along Saum Creek and the Tualatin River into Clackamas County, where it passes a mix of exurban neighborhoods, forests, and farmland. After crossing the river, I-205 turns southeasterly into West Linn and runs along the banks of the Willamette River near Willamette Falls; the freeway has a scenic overlook of the falls for northbound traffic. After an interchange with Oregon Route 43 (OR 43), I-205 expands to six lanes and crosses the Willamette River on the Abernethy Bridge, which runs for 2,727 ft into Oregon City and is capped to the east by an interchange with OR 99E. The freeway passes Oregon City's Amtrak train station, and then follows the railroad north to a junction with OR 213, which becomes concurrent with I-205.

The freeway continues north across the Clackamas River, passing through residential and industrial areas in Gladstone and Clackamas. Near Johnson City, I-205 intersects the west end of OR 212, which provides access to Boring and Mount Hood. The concurrency with OR 213 ends at a partial cloverleaf interchange with OR 224—the Sunrise Expressway—near several radio towers on the west side of Mount Talbert. I-205 briefly expands to eight lanes and intersects several roads near the Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center and Clackamas Town Center, a regional shopping mall, then continues north through an unincorporated residential area between Milwaukie and Happy Valley. The freeway travels north with tracks on the west side for the MAX Green Line, a light rail service operated by TriMet, and enters Portland in Multnomah County.

Portland and Vancouver
I-205 passes through eastern Portland about 5 mi from downtown, and runs parallel to OR 213 on 82nd Avenue and the I-205 Transitway that carries the MAX Green Line. From the Clackamas Town Center, the freeway travels through residential areas in Lents neighborhood at the foot of Mount Scott, home to the Willamette National Cemetery. I-205 intersects U.S. Route 26 (US 26) at Powell Boulevard near Kelly Butte and the Jade District in Powellhurst-Gilbert. North of Division Street, the freeway marks the boundary between the neighborhoods of Montavilla and Hazelwood, and the MAX Green Line switches to the east side. I-205 then intersects Stark, Burnside, and Gilsan streets via a series of weaved ramps near Mall 205 and the Adventist Health Portland hospital.

North of Gilsan Street, the freeway intersects I-84 and US 30 near the Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center, where the MAX Green Line turns west. I-205 and I-84/US 30 travel parallel to each other for 1 mi along the base of Rocky Butte, where they follow a section of the MAX Red Line on the I-205 Transitway. I-84/US 30 turns east towards the Columbia River Gorge at Northeast Fremont Street, while I-205 continues north around the suburban enclave of Maywood Park with the light rail trackway in its median. The freeway intersects US 30 Bypass (Lombard Street and Sandy Boulevard) and turns northeast to pass under a railroad in Parkrose. The MAX Red Line diverges west from the freeway towards Portland International Airport, which is accessed from I-205 via the Airport Way interchange on the south side of the Columbia River. I-205 crosses the Columbia River and Government Island on the eight-lane Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge, a concrete segmental bridge that spans 11,750 ft between Oregon and Washington.

On the Washington side of the river, I-205 serves the northeastern side of Vancouver and its unincorporated suburbs in Clark County. The freeway intersects State Route 14 (SR 14), a regional east–west freeway that connects to Downtown Vancouver and the Camas–Washougal area in a partial combination interchange on the north side of the river. I-205 curves northwest to intersect Mill Plain Boulevard in a partial cloverleaf interchange and Northeast 18th Street in a half-diamond interchange before it continues north through predominantly residential neighborhoods. The six-lane freeway then reaches a cloverleaf interchange with another east–west freeway, SR 500, on the east side of the Vancouver Mall. I-205 narrows to four lanes and travels northwest along LaLonde Creek to the community of Salmon Creek, where it terminates at an interchange with I-5. The incomplete interchange is located southwest of Washington State University Vancouver and requires some movements from I-5 to and from Vancouver to be made via two half-diamond interchanges on Northeast 134th Street.

Multi-use trail

A multi-use bicycle and pedestrian trail follows I-205 for much of its distance on the Oregon side of the Portland metropolitan area, and connects to the Springwater Corridor trail near the Foster Road exit. The paved trail parallels the highway and the I-205 Transitway for 19 mi from Oregon City to Southeast 23rd Street in Vancouver. The 12 ft trail is situated in the middle of the Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge between lanes of traffic with 4.5 ft barriers but has no access to Government Island. The bridge was designed to support light rail trains in the median, which would replace the trail, but the route was not considered by transit authorities. ODOT maintains the I-205 Trail but some trash-pickup and site-cleanup responsibilities were transferred to the Portland city government in 2018.

Planning and routing debate

In 1943, New York-based planner Robert Moses authored the Portland Improvement Plan, which included a "scenic thoroughfare" that would bypass Portland to the east and an inner loop of major roads in the downtown area. An earlier comprehensive plan from 1912 had envisioned a series of arterial highways along the future corridor, which would lead to a bridge over the Columbia River via Government Island. The corridor was among four Portland-area routes included in a 1955 plan from the federal Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) for what became the Interstate Highway System, which was approved one year later. The Oregon State Highway Commission designated it as the Laurelhurst Freeway, running along Northeast 39th Avenue—now César E. Chávez Boulevard—through Laurelhurst neighborhood between Tualatin and crossing the Columbia River via a toll-free bridge. The bridge's proposed location was later shifted west to Northeast 30th Avenue to accommodate a runway extension at Portland International Airport.

The American Association of State Highway Officials approved I-205 as the designation for the Portland–Vancouver bypass freeway in November 1958. In 1961, it was added to Washington's state highway system as a branch of Primary State Highway 1 and was renumbered to State Route 205 in 1964. To connect with its parent route I-5 at Tualatin, the Laurelhurst Freeway would turn west to cross the Willamette River at Lake Oswego and travel along the south side of the lake. It was planned to be the last major freeway in the Portland area to be completed under the 1955 plan; construction was projected to be finished by 1974 at a cost of $70 million (equivalent to $ in dollars). A corresponding western bypass of Portland was omitted from plans due to the topography of the Tualatin Mountains and a low population, but in the 1960s was unsuccessfully proposed as the Rivergate Freeway.

The first set of alternatives for the Laurelhurst Freeway, which was renamed the Central East Side Freeway and later referred to as I-205, were presented to the public in 1961 and 1962 ahead of a formal routing study. In December 1961, the Oregon State Highway Department presented five alternatives for the east–west section through Lake Oswego that drew opposition from community members and the local school district, which feared it would isolate the schools from homes. The Laurelhurst Community Council also organized opposition to the freeway plans at public hearings the following month; local residents feared disruption of the neighborhood's character, and an influx of low-income and multi-family development. In April 1963, responding to a petition drive from residents, the Lake Oswego City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing any routing of I-205 in the city and a bridge over the Willamette River that would induce freeway construction.

In September 1963, a series of public hearings were held by the Oregon State Highway Department for an alternative proposal for I-205. The new route would cross the Willamette River south of Lake Oswego but travel further east of Portland along 111th Avenue and cross the Columbia River east of the airport at Government Island. Another alternative would remove the Lake Oswego alignment in favor of an east–west route along Division Street and Powell Boulevard (US 26) from I-5 at the Marquam Bridge, which had already been proposed for the Mount Hood Freeway. After initial disagreements, the city governments of West Linn and Milwaukie joined with a local chamber of commerce to support the Lake Oswego and 111th Avenue alternatives, while Lake Oswego remained opposed.

The Oregon State Highway Commission promised in 1963 not to pursue a Lake Oswego alignment that year because it would not be possible with opposition from the city government, but delayed its final decision by several months. In June 1964, the Portland–Vancouver Metropolitan Transportation Study (PVMTS) Technical Advisory Committee, a separate planning body formed in 1960 to produce a comprehensive plan, submitted an alignment to the state that would follow Tryon Creek along the northern edge of Lake Oswego and turn northeast to run in a trench along Northeast 52nd Avenue through Milwaukie and Portland. The route would then turn west to cross the Columbia River west of the airport and continue through eastern Vancouver along 54th Avenue towards Salmon Creek.

The PVMTS-recommended route faced opposition from public officials in Vancouver, Lake Oswego, and Multnomah County; as well as citizens at public hearings held in Milwaukie, eastern Portland, Lake Oswego, and Glencoe. Other proposals from political and commercial groups included routing the east–west leg as far south as Canby and as far east as Gresham. The Multnomah County government remained supportive of an east–west route that used the Mount Hood Freeway corridor, which would connect with a north–south leg along 96th Avenue in eastern Portland. The corridor was estimated to cost $38 million less (equivalent to $ in dollars) than the PVMTS plan. In early July, several neighborhood groups who opposed the 52nd Avenue route organized the Portland Citizens Freeway Committee; at a meeting in late August, the committee presented a petition with 7,000 signatures to the Oregon State Highway Commission.

On October 14, 1964, in a report submitted to the Oregon State Highway Commission that proposed an eight-lane freeway that would cost approximately $90 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) to construct, the Oregon State Highway Department endorsed the Mount Hood Freeway and 96th Avenue alignment for I-205. The decision drew criticism from members of the PVMTS, particularly in Clark County on the Washington side, and the Portland City Planning Commission despite the city's earlier support of the 96th Avenue alignment. In early December, the Oregon State Highway Commission organized a week-long public hearing and exhibit for the proposed corridor at the Portland Public Auditorium, which drew 600 to 700 people. At the hearing, the City of Gresham and City of Camas joined the Multnomah County Commissioners in their support of the 96th Avenue alignment, while the City of Portland declined to endorse a specific plan.

The Oregon State Highway Commission had planned to send its own recommendation to the Bureau of Public Roads but delayed action due to a major flood in December 1964 that destroyed several highways. The commissioners considered moving I-205 beyond Portland's city limits to avoid confrontations with the city government, which later opened negotiations after pressure from state legislators. The commission endorsed the Mount Hood—96th Avenue alignment in March 1965. The Portland Planning Commission responded with the 52nd Avenue alignment through Laurelhurst in lieu of wider arterial streets, and also ordered a new east–west option near the Sellwood Bridge and along Johnson Creek to avoid Lake Oswego. In April, the Portland City Council voted 4–1 to reject the state's 96th Avenue alignment but took no action on the Planning Commission's proposed route.

Facing a July 1965 deadline on the routing decision imposed by the Bureau of Public Roads, which was later extended to September, the Oregon State Highway Department turned to a new corridor that would avoid the city of Portland. In May 1965, the department proposed an extended version of the 96th Avenue alignment that would continue further south, cross the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn, and turn west towards Tualatin. The new alignment would be 3.7 mi over the allocated mileage for I-205, which would require additional approval from the BPR, and had been previously proposed in March as part of the Central Clackamas Freeway. The West Linn–96th alignment was given tentative approval by the BPR and was sent by the Oregon State Highway Commission to local governments in June as an "all or nothing" option. While they continued to work on their favored Mount Hood alignment, the City of Portland agreed to cooperate with the state on the new I-205 alignment, which would pass through only a small portion of the Lents neighborhood.

On September 8, 1965, the Portland City Council approved the state's West Linn–96th alignment for I-205 following the BPR's rejection of funds for the Mount Hood Freeway. A day earlier, the Washington State Highway Commission, having rejected an earlier proposal from Clark County to extend the freeway to Ridgefield, approved the location of the freeway's bridge over the Columbia River at Government Island, as well as a tentative route through eastern Vancouver to Salmon Creek. By October, the new Oregon alignment had gained the approval of all local governments along its route except for Washington County, which proposed a western bypass that was rejected by the state government.

The Oregon State Highway Commission adopted the West Linn–96th alignment on November 19, 1965, and forwarded the proposal to the BPR for approval despite opposition from Washington County and residents at public hearings. The Washington side's routing was finalized in late December and was also forwarded to the BPR. The BPR approved the revised routing in Oregon in March 1966; this was followed two months later by approval of Washington's alignment. I-205 was also integrated into the state highway system of Oregon as East Portland Freeway Highway No. 64 on April 21, 1966. The 52nd Avenue alignment was revived as a separate freeway proposal in a long-term plan but was never fully funded. In 1969, the federal government approved the Mount Hood Freeway as part of the relocation of I-80N (now I-84) from the existing Banfield Expressway; the new alignment would have been partially concurrent with I-205. The move was reversed in 1974 when the Mount Hood Freeway was canceled entirely in 1974.

Tualatin–Clackamas construction

Preliminary work on the West Linn–Oregon City bridge, now named the George Abernethy Bridge, began in April 1967 with piledriving to determine the bridge's foundation requirements. Construction of the bridge would have required the closure of access to a popular fishing site on the Willamette River, causing local sport fishers to protest; a nearby site was later donated for use as a new boat launch and public fishing area. Demolition for the bridge project, which included the destruction of an existing shopping center, began in January 1968, and construction of the bridge itself was underway a month later. The George Abernethy Bridge opened to traffic on May 28, 1970, and cost $17.1 million to construct (equivalent to $ in dollars), completing the first section of I-205.

Construction on the second section of I-205, which spanned 8 mi between I-5 in Tualatin and the bridge's approach in West Linn, began in 1968 and was completed on January 12, 1971. It cost $22.5 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) and required the removal of 2.5 e6cuyd of soil and rock. Work included the blasting of basalt cliffs for over a year during daytime hours. Excavation for the project caused a series of landslides near West Linn in 1969 that severely damaged the city's reservoir, destroyed three homes, and delayed the opening by months; after several months of water rationing, the reservoir was replaced with state funding the following year.

The West Linn section's opening spurred new residential development in the area and was expected to cause major increases in smog density. The section was designated as a state scenic highway to ban billboards and commercial development near Tualatin and also included the first rest area on I-205, which was built near West Linn. In late 1972, the freeway was extended northeast from Oregon City to Gladstone, connecting to an existing expressway bypass for OR 213 through Park Place that opened in July 1962. The interchange with OR 99E on the east approach of the bridge was built on fill using debris from excavation of the West Linn section. The final section in Clackamas County, connecting OR 213 at Lake Road to Sunnyside Road, opened in February 1975.

Portland delays and design changes
In June 1967, on its second attempt, the neighborhood of Maywood Park near Rocky Butte incorporated as a city to halt construction of I-205 by filing suit against the state. The lawsuit delayed planning; Maywood Park lost its case, and appealed through county and state courts but in 1976, the city's final appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit was denied. The court concluded Multnomah County had jurisdiction over the area at the time of the freeway's design approval. I-205 was relocated from an elevated viaduct to a trench west of Maywood Park; freeway construction, however, required the demolition of 87 homes in the city.

Another objection to the freeway's routing came from the Port of Portland, which had planned to extend the runways of Portland International Airport in a manner that would interfere with I-205's crossing of Government Island and the Columbia River. Planning of the bridge, which would use dredged fill near Government Island for its southern approach, was halted until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the runway plans in August 1969. The FHWA approved the bridge's basic design in September 1971; the design was extensively modified after the runway extension plans were abandoned in 1973. The lack of a runway expansion and its associated dredging work would necessitate a longer southern approach, which increased costs by $20 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) and delayed planning by 20 months. The bridge plans were also modified to include a bicycle and pedestrian path in the median to comply with the Oregon Bicycle Bill.

In 1967, the Oregon state government began acquisition of homes, businesses, and other properties on the future route of I-205, either through buyouts or condemnation. The buildings were auctioned for relocation to clear the right-of-way. Several business owners in eastern Portland appealed to state legislators for compensation, financial assistance for moving, and a year to relocate after freeway construction displaced them. A group representing the Clackamas Industrial Area, which was to be bisected by I-205, requested a study in 1967 to find a new route that would avoid the industrial park. The study concluded that an alternative alignment would be infeasible and displace nearby homes, which led to a 1969 decision by the commission to retain the original plan.

Under the initial design proposed in 1970 for I-205 through Portland, the freeway would be eight to ten lanes wide, and would carry a portion of I-80N between the Mount Hood Freeway and Banfield Expressway. The Portland and Multnomah County governments raised concerns about noise and air pollution near Lents School and the Rocky Butte Jail, the latter of which would sit 50 ft from the freeway, and requested several design changes with a full environmental impact statement (EIS). The state's draft EIS, which was published in 1972, concluded I-205 would not have a major adverse impact on the local area but the Multnomah County environmental planner criticized it for not considering a "no build" option.

On July 2, 1974, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted 3–2 to revoke their approval for the design of I-205 within the county. Board commissioners Donald Clark and Mel Gordon had proposed the move to force negotiations to reduce the freeway to eight lanes, remove several interchanges, add a transit corridor, and replace elevated sections with trenches. Several anti-freeway groups which had filed air pollution complaints with the state, including the Sierra Club, the Oregon Environmental Council, End Needless Urban Freeways (ENUF), and Sensible Transportation Options for People (STOP), supported the proposed changes, and added calls to include provisions for a busway or light rail line on the corridor. The Federal Highway Administration—successor to the BPR—denied a request from the county to withdraw its support and funding for the original design, and instead authorized the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)—successor to the Highway Department—to advertise bids for the southernmost section in February 1975. The Portland City Council called on the state and county to seek a compromise but endorsed the modified design with a busway.

ODOT released the second draft EIS in February 1975; it concluded that constructing I-205 as originally designed would reduce congestion on other corridors but would cause increased air and noise pollution along the route, particularly in Lents and Maywood Park. The report also found freeway construction would destroy trees and other vegetation near Rocky Butte and on Government Island. In July 1975, Governor Bob Straub and Multnomah County officials announced a general compromise on a six-lane design for I-205 with seven transit stations connected by a busway, pending federal approval. At hearings, state legislators from eastern Multnomah County and members of the public criticized the design, which also reduced the number of full interchanges, as being inadequate for the area's needs. In January 1976, as part of a pressure campaign to support the eight-lane design with additional interchanges, businessman Fred G. Meyer announced plans to build a Fred Meyer store and motel in the Gateway area.

In late 1975, as a compromise between the competing proposals, ODOT engineers conceived a third design incorporating a six-lane freeway with seven interchanges that alternated between partial and full access, a separated busway, and a bicycle trail. The FHWA initially opposed the busway design and were concerned about the safety of partial interchanges, but later withdrew their complaints following further design changes and endorsed the third concept in December. The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners endorsed the third design in February 1976 and Portland City Council followed later in the month, allowing it to be included in the EIS. In June, following a positive reception for the revised design at a public hearing, the Portland City Council and Multnomah County Commissioners approved construction of I-205 by unanimous votes. The final EIS was published in July and submitted to the FHWA, which granted its approval in October 1976. The state government acquired 1,448 properties on the I-205 route, mostly by the end of 1973 and at a cost of $120 million (equivalent to $ in dollars); the properties were cleared while the state government waited for the design changes.

Portland and Vancouver construction

Construction of the 11 mi section on the Washington side of the river began in July 1971. Early work on the section in northeastern Vancouver was briefly interrupted following the discovery of a seasonal campsite used by Coast Salish peoples, which necessitated an archeological dig. The Washington section cost $35 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) to construct; it opened to traffic in two stages without formal ceremonies. The northern section from Northeast 83rd Street to I-5 opened on August 22, 1975, and the southern section from SR 14 to Northeast 83rd Street opened on December 22, 1976. A new shopping center, the Vancouver Mall, was built at the I-205 and SR 500 interchange to attract cross-state traffic, and opened in 1977.

Construction of the first Portland section, which extended I-205 by 2.7 mi from Sunnyside Road to Foster Road in southeastern Portland, began in early 1975. It opened to traffic on January 26, 1976, following a month-long delay caused by a shortage of signs and gantries. The state government awarded contracts for the remaining sections in Portland in 1977, with grading and preliminary work beginning that year. The second section, between Foster Road and Powell Boulevard (US 26), opened in February 1981 at a cost of $23 million (equivalent to $ in dollars). It comprised 1 mi of the freeway, and a braided interchange with ramps to Powell Boulevard and Division Street.

Construction of Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge over the Columbia River, which is named for Oregon highway commissioner Glenn Jackson, began with a groundbreaking ceremony on August 23, 1977. Its construction used 592 post-tensioned segmental boxes that were lifted into place, a method that was relatively new to the U.S. at the time, and cost $175 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) to build. The bridge was opened to traffic on December 15, 1982, along with a link to the eastern portion of the Banfield Freeway (I-84) and two intermediate interchanges. The bicycle and pedestrian path on the bridge, part of a longer system along I-205, was opened the following year. The completion of the Glenn L. Jackson Bridge spurred major industrial and residential development in eastern Vancouver, and transformed it into a bedroom community that was characterized as urban sprawl. The planned growth around I-205 and its potential to encroach on the Columbia River Gorge led to calls for a national scenic area, which was established in 1986 to protect the area from development.

The final section of I-205, which spanned 6.6 mi from Division Street to the northern junction with the Banfield Freeway, opened to traffic on March 8, 1983. Its completion was delayed by the pending transfer of prisoners from the Rocky Butte Jail to the new Multnomah County Jail in Downtown Portland. A series of high fences were temporarily built to mitigate air and noise pollution until the transfer was completed. The old jail was closed in November 1983 and was demolished the following year to make way for the remainder of the southern interchange with the Banfield Freeway. The Division–Banfield section of I-205 initially opened with four through lanes, which was expanded to six in December 1984. The full southern interchange was opened in 1985, coinciding with the widening of I-84 to accommodate expected traffic from I-205. The estimated total cost of I-205 construction in 1983 was $375 million (equivalent to $ in dollars).

The parallel transitway on the I-205 corridor was graded but left unfinished. It ran to the west of the freeway from Foster Road to a tunnel near Division Street, and switched to the east side through Gateway and the median from Rocky Butte to Columbia Boulevard. While initially envisioned for use by buses, TriMet and Metro pursued a light rail line that would connect with the existing Banfield line—now the MAX Blue Line—which opened in 1986 along the I-84 corridor. Congress approved the reallocation of federal funds in 1987, and was formally submitted to the FHWA by the Oregon state government in 1989. A short section of the transitway was used for the Banfield line and the northern section was incorporated into the MAX Red Line, which opened in 2001 to serve Portland International Airport. The remainder of the transitway from Gateway to Clackamas was built out as part of the MAX Green Line, which opened in 2009.

Later developments
Several infill interchanges were added to I-205 as new development on the corridor contributed to increased traffic congestion on the freeway and adjacent streets. Between 1983 and 1985, traffic volumes on the freeway had increased by a third. In December 1984, a split interchange with Stark and Washington streets near Mall 205 was expanded to include ramps to Glisan Street and a frontage road. An interchange with Lester Avenue—now Johnson Creek Boulevard—was proposed in the late 1980s to relieve congestion at the nearby Sunnyside Road interchange, which by 1989 had become the busiest in Oregon. The new interchange, which was approved despite opposition from local residents, was completed in November 1990 at a cost of $6.9 million (equivalent to $ in dollars).

The opening of the Glenn L. Jackson Bridge reduced traffic on the older Interstate Bridge from over 116,000 vehicles per weekday in 1982 to 96,000 in 1986; Glenn L. Jackson Bridge carried 61,000 vehicles in 1986 and has a capacity of 140,000 daily vehicles. By 1996, traffic on the bridge had exceeded that on the Interstate Bridge, and I-205 was used the following year as a major detour route during repairs to the older bridge. For several months in 2000, the Glenn L. Jackson Bridge underwent weekend closures to allow for the replacement of its expansion joints, which had been damaged by increased traffic. The Clackamas River Bridge on I-205 in Gladstone underwent similar expansion joint replacements over an eleven-month period in 2001.

To manage congestion, ODOT installed ramp meters at 11 locations along I-205 from 1999 to 2001 and worked with Metro to study other solutions, which were deemed infeasible due to a lack of funds for substantial construction. The Sunnyside Road interchange, which handled 50,000 daily vehicles and remained congested due to growth at the Clackamas Town Center, was rebuilt from 2001 to 2003 at a cost of $28 million (equivalent to $ in dollars). The project split the interchange between Sunnyside Road and an extended Sunnybrook Boulevard to the south with frontage roads between the two overpasses. In 2007, at the suggestion of congressperson Darlene Hooley, a 3 mi section of the freeway from Tualatin to West Linn was widened to six lanes through the reuse and upgrade of temporary lanes that were constructed for a repaving project.

The Washington state government funded two improvements to the Mill Plain Boulevard interchange on I-205 in Vancouver through its 2003 and 2005 legislative packages. The first stage, which was completed in October 2009, added an offramp to Chkalov Drive (named for Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov) to bypass its congested intersection with Mill Plain. The second project added a set of braided ramps to a new interchange with Northeast 18th Street, which opened in July 2016 at a cost of $40.6 million. Both projects were proposed in the 1990s, initially as a split interchange with 18th and 28th streets, amid a development moratorium on Mill Plain that the City of Vancouver imposed due to traffic congestion.

The freeway's concurrency with OR 224 near Clackamas was eliminated in 2016 with the opening of the Sunrise Expressway, when OR 224 was realigned to bypass a section of OR 212. In 2017, ODOT began a major repaving and modernization project on the Oregon section of I-205, which was funded with $30 million from the state's new transportation package. The project was completed in 2020 at a cost of $60 million, and included the addition of a variable speed limit and variable message signs, new stormwater treatment facilities, and the construction of auxiliary lanes near OR 224 and between Powell Boulevard and I-84.

Future plans
In the 2020s, ODOT plans to reconstruct a 7 mi section of I-205 in Clackamas County between Stafford Road and OR 213 in the 2020s to add a third through lane in each direction and conduct seismic upgrades to Abernethy Bridge and Tualatin River bridge. The program began construction in July 2022 and is scheduled to last until 2028, and was originally estimated to cost $700 million. Part of the costs would be funded through variable tolling that was scheduled to begin as early as 2024 pending federal approval, which drew opposition from the public but was approved by the state government in 2018. In May 2023, governor Tina Kotek deferred all toll collection until 2026 and the formation of a legislative subcommittee to review plans. Due to the loss of toll revenue, the second phase was deferred indefinitely; the bridge replacement and widening program is expected to cost $1.36 billion. ODOT announced in September 2023 that it would cancel plans to toll the Tualatin River bridge and defer the third lane between Tualatin and Oregon City due to a lack of funding.

In the 1990s, the states of Oregon and Washington began planning a replacement for the Interstate Bridge, which later became the Columbia River Crossing program of the 2000s and 2010s. Among the options considered was a north–south light rail line on either I-5 or I-205 to connect Vancouver to the rest of the MAX Light Rail system. Glenn L. Jackson Bridge had been deemed capable of handling the weight of light rail vehicles in the 1980s but would require extensive renovations. A replacement crossing at the site of the Interstate Bridge with light rail capabilities was later chosen for the program, which was shelved in 2014 following disagreements on funding and the final design of the bridge.

The replacement bridge would have been funded by tolls on I-5 that would increase daily traffic on the Glenn L. Jackson Bridge by 40,000 vehicles, which led to calls to also toll I-205. The second iteration of the Columbia River Crossing program, which was revived in 2019 as the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, proposes tolling both I-5 and I-205 to fund the project, and to serve as congestion pricing to deter driving. Long-term plans from the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council, the planning body for Clark County, include making improvements to several interchanges on I-205 by 2040.

Exit list
Mileposts and exit numbers carry over from Oregon to Washington.

title: Interstate 205 (Oregon–Washington)