The Portland metro area’s Thursday morning commute was a mess. If you were among the thousands of motorists trapped in the dark, wet side of highway hell, that’s hardly news.

But you may not know why traffic jammed up or the extent of the problems.

So, here’s a big picture -- based on

and tweets from commuters -- of what essentially became miles upon miles of free parking on the region’s highways:

4:55 a.m.:

A stall on Interstate 5 northbound on the Marquam Bridge closed the freeway’s right lane, backing up traffic through the Terwilliger Curves.

5:39 a.m.:

A crash at the I-205 intersection with the Sandy/ U.S. 30 Bypass closed the state’s busiest highway ramp and wrecked the morning Clackamas commute early on.

5:49 a.m.:

A fallen tree on Oregon 99E two miles south of Oregon City closed a northbound lane for about an hour.

5:57 a.m.:

A two vehicle crash near Damascus on Oregon 212 eastbound west of Tong Road blocked an eastbound lane.

6:15 a.m.:

A crash on I-205 northbound and Oregon 213 at Washington Street interchange created about 10 miles of gridlock that jammed up the freeway and Oregon 224.

7:04 a.m.:

A two-vehicle crash in Beaverton on Tualatin Valley Highway east of Murray Boulevard near 141st.

7:31 a.m.:

A two-car fender bender on U.S. 26 pretty much ruined the eastbound commute out of Washington County for the rest of the morning, backing up traffic to Oregon 217.

7:40 a.m.:

Yet another crash on I-5 northbound at Southwest Haines Street scattered debris across the highway, making a bad situation in the T-Curves even worse.

7:50 a.m.:

Another crash on I-205 northbound at Market Street blocked the left lane as drivers attempted to find a detour to work clogged up McLoughlin Boulevard and Powell Boulevard across the Ross Island Bridge.

7:55 a.m.:

And another lane-closing crash on I-205 northbound, this time at the I-84 east interchange.

8:30 a.m.:

And one more crash on I-5, this time in a southbound lane just past the Rose Quarter. Southbound traffic was already molasses, stretching across the Interstate Bridge.

8:40 a.m.:

And how about one more crash on I-205 northbound? This one was at Oregon 213, blocking the left lane and creating a backup to the Abernathy Bridge.

Just think, you get to try it all over again in about seven hours.

But hey, at least you weren’t trying to get to work in Sandy-ravaged New York City.

I’m guessing that’s several hundred people – maybe over 1,000 -- at one transit stop.

OregonLive also has a slideshow of New York's commuter crowds trying to use the Subway -- well, at least the limited lines that started operating Thursday.

To those East Coasters attempting to drive in the aftermath of Sandy: good luck with the gridlock.

Of course,

, if there was ever a week to start commuting by bicycle in New York, this is it. “Protected bike lanes throughout Manhattan were a blessing for bike riders today, who did not have to fight with gridlocked cars to keep moving, at least where the lanes have been installed,” the blog reported.

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