Portland's Railroad History

Railroads were the largest industry in the United States by the late 1800s, and they held a commanding share of the transportation market for both freight and passengers until well after World War I. As a result, a city's fortunes were largely dependent on its rail connections. In that respect, Portland has been very fortunate, as the following timeline illustrates:

• 1843 - William Overton and Asa Lovejoy landed a canoe near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and laid a 640-acre claim. Overton sold his quickly sold his half-share of the claim to Francis Pettygrove. Pettygrove, from Maine, and Lovejoy, from Massachusetts,  flipped a coin in 1845 to decide whether the place would be named Portland or Boston.

• 1844 - Oregon City becomes the first settlement in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains to be incorporated as a city. The fledging municipality is located at Willamette Falls, a barrier to navigation between the lower and middle portions of the Willamette River, and an important portage site.
• 1846 - The first "railroad" in Oregon is constructed as a portage tramway between Oregon City and Canemah. "Trains" are horse-drawn and operate over wooden track. The line is less than a mile long, but acts as an important link between the paddle-wheeled steamboats soon to be operating above and below Willamette Falls.
• 1851 - Justin Chenowith's Cascades Railroad Co. becomes the first railroad in what became Washington State, operating 5.9 miles between Hamilton Island and Stevenson. Like the Oregon City-Canemah operation, the Cascades Railroad was a mule-powered portage line linking river steamboat routes, but in this case it was connecting the lower and middle navigable sections of the Columbia River around the north side of the Cascades Rapids. The Spokane, Portland & Seattle line would be constructed in the same area more than 50 years later.
• 1859 - Oregon is admitted to the Union as the 33rd state on St. Valentine's Day.
• 1861 - Oregon Portage Railway becomes the first true railroad in Oregon when it begins operations on May 20. The company is in direct competition with the Cascades Railroad, as it gives river-goers a second route around the Cascades Cascades. The company initially uses a mule on its 4.5 mile line on the southern bank of the Columbia between Wasco Landing (just east of present day Cascade Locks, OR) and a point across the river from Bonneville, WA. The company was shut down on April 20, 1863, when its owner, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, gained control of the Cascades Railroad Co., but would later be revived. It was ultimately sold to the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co., becoming the oldest portion of both that railroad and its eventual successor, the Union Pacific Railroad.
• 1862 - “The Oregon Pony” arrives in Portland on March 31, and becomes the first steam locomotive to operate in the Pacific Northwest when it enters service on the Oregon Portage Railroad on May 10. Built by Vulcan Iron Works in San Francisco, the 0-4-0 is also the first locomotive built on the Pacific Coast. The engine is put to work on the Cascades Railroad when the Oregon Portage Railway is shut down. It is displayed in Portland during the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905 and subsequently put on outdoor display at Portland Union Station. The engine has since returned home to Cascade Locks, where it is displayed within a glass enclosure at Marine Park.
• 1863 - Construction of the thirteen-mile Cascade Portage Railroad is completed by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company between Celilo and The Dalles. This would later be sold to the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, becoming the oldest section of both that railroad and its successor, the Union Pacific.
• 1868 - Portland gets its first long-distance railroad when the Oregon Central Railroad (East Side Company) begins construction south along the east bank of the Willamette River from a point near present-day Division Street in the Brooklyn Neighborhood. A competing company, the Oregon Central Railroad (West Side Company) begins construction from Portland the very next day. Its line runs west to Forest Grove and then southward. The East Side Company becomes the first railroad to operate in Portland in 1869, running on 20 miles of track to New Era, and was soon reorganized to become the Oregon & California Railroad Co.
• 1869 - Central Pacific and Union Pacific join at Promontory Summit, UT, to create the first transcontinental railroad. The line links Omaha, NE with Sacramento, CA (and eventually with the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco Bay).
• 1872 - Construction on the Oregon & California has run the length of the Willamette Valley and reaches Roseburg, OR, halting there amid financial difficulties. Henry Villard is sent by the company’s German bondholders to head the company.
• 1874 - The Northern Pacific completes its isolated Pacific Division traversing Washington Territory between Puget Sound at New Tacoma and the Columbia River at Kalama. Scheduled service begins on January 5, and includes runs between Portland and Kalama, provided by steamboats on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.
• 1879 - The Oregon Railway & Navigation Company is organized by Villard on June 13. The new company purchases the Oregon Steam Navigation Company (including its Cascade Portage Railroad), and begins construction on a railroad line east from Albina (Portland) along the south bank of the Columbia River.
• 1880 - Villard begins buying up the stock of the Northern Pacific Railroad, a struggling land grant railroad charted to connect Lake Superior with Puget Sound. In 1880, the NP is still incomplete with two separate lines, the first running westward from St. Paul and Duluth, MN and the second running between Tacoma and Kalama, WA, with a connection to Portland via steamboats on the Columbia River.  With help from German investors who contribute to his now famous "Blind Pool," he successfully gains control of the NP in 1881. Villard's goal is to prevent the NP from eventually taking over his OR&N, but with control of the NP, the OR&N, and the Oregon & California, Villard establishes a short-lived railroad monopoly in the Northwest, centered at Portland.
• 1882 - The OR&N completes its line along the south bank of the Columbia River from Portland to Wallula, WA, on November 20.
• 1883 - Southern Pacific completes the nation's second transcontinental route, linking Los Angeles with New Orleans.
• 1883 - Portland is linked to the national railroad network when Northern Pacific completes the nation's third transcontinental route by using the line of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co. The first transcontinental train arrives in Portland on Sept. 11. Tacoma, WA, is the NP's official western terminus, but Portland is the largest and most important city in the Pacific Northwest and remains so for the rest of the 19th century. The OR&N and NP begin operating a joint passenger train, the eastbound Atlantic Express and westbound Pacific Express, between Portland and St. Paul, with the transfer between the two roads taking place at Wallula Jct., WA.
• 1884 - Northern Pacific puts the world's second largest ferry, the 338-ft., steamboat Kalama (later renamed Tacoma), into service between Goble, OR, and Kalama, WA. Trains between Portland and Tacoma now travel along the Oregon bank of the Columbia to Goble, are loaded onto the three-track ferry (engine and cars) for the trip to Kalama, WA, and complete the journey to Tacoma over the original mainline.
• 1884 - Wall Street bears attack the NP, which has accumulated significant debt during its construction. Villard returns to Germany for a time after suffering a nervous breakdown. The NP, in his absence, begins separating itself from the OR&N and focusing on connecting Wallula directly to Puget Sound over the Cascade Range.
• 1884 - Portland gets its second link to the east and becomes the terminus of the nation's fourth transcontinental route as the OR&N and the Oregon Short Line Railway (a Union Pacific subsidiary) jointly celebrate a golden spike ceremony in Huntington, OR, on November 25. The OR&N had just completed its line over the Blue Mountains from Pendleton to Huntington, OR, while the OSL had completed construction of its route from between Huntington and the Union Pacific's Omaha-Ogden mainline at Granger, WY. The line provides a link for Portland residents to Boise, Pocatello, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Omaha, and another competitive route to Chicago and the east. Through service between Omaha and Portland officially begins on December 1.
• 1884 - Southward construction on the Oregon & California continues over Siskiyou Summit to Ashland, OR.
• 1885 - The Santa Fe Railway completes its transcontinental line between Los Angeles and Chicago, giving Los Angeles a second line east and a shorter route to Chicago.
• 1887 - On January 1, the Union Pacific's Oregon Short Line and the Northern Pacific share a joint lease of the OR&N.
• 1887 - The Oregon & California and Southern Pacific meet at the OR-CA state line south of Ashland. The O&C falls into receivership allowing the SP to gain control and then lease the company later in the year (SP would purchased the O&C outright in 1927). As a result, Portland becomes the northern terminus of the Southern Pacific and an important railroad junction point. Passengers on Southern Pacific’s California Express train can now ride straight through between Portland and San Francisco in only a day and a half.
• 1888 - Northern Pacific completes its tunnel under the Washington Cascades at Stampede Pass, giving Tacoma and Seattle a direct, viable link to the east for the first time.
• 1889 - Union Pacific purchases 50% of the OR&N's stock, solidifying UP's position in the Pacific Northwest.
• 1890 - Portland becomes the nation's 61st largest city, with 46,385 people.
• 1891 - NP begins routing passenger trains to Portland over Stampede Pass and through Tacoma rather than on the OR&N.
• 1893 - The Great Northern Railway connects St. Paul, MN with Seattle, WA, becoming the nation's fifth transcontinental railroad.
• 1896 - On St. Valentine's Day, the Northern Pacific Terminal Company opens Portland Union Station, then known as Grand Central Station and later as Union Depot.
• 1896 - The Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co. is formed as an amalgamation of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co. and several smaller roads.
• 1899 - The Great Northern begins its Great Northern Flyer express trains between Portland and Chicago, running on the OR&N between Portland and Spokane.
• 1900 - Portland's inhabitants number 90,426, making the city the 42nd largest in the country and the third largest on the Pacific Coast, behind San Francisco (342,782) and Los Angeles (102,479).
• 1900 - The Northern Pacific begins its daily premier transcontinental passenger service between Portland and Chicago, the North Coast Limited.
• 1905 - The Great Northern begins its premier Oriental Limited train between the Pacific Northwest and Chicago. The train is split into two sections west of Spokane with one section traversing the GN line over Stevens Pass to Seattle and the other section running on the OR&N to Portland.
• 1906 - Portland receives its shortest link to the east yet when the Spokane International is completed. The SI linked UP's OR&N with the Canadian Pacific at Kingsgate, BC, creating a line from Chicago to Portland through Canada via the Soo Line (a CP subsidiary), the CP, the SI, and the OR&N. An express passenger train, the Soo-Spokane-Portland Train de Luxe, was inaugurated over the route in 1909.
• 1908 - The Oregon Electric Railway Company begins operating a line south from Portland to Salem.
• 1908-1909 - The Great Northern and Northern Pacific, both controlled by James J. Hill, finance the construction of the Spokane, Portland, & Seattle Railway. The SP&S’s “North Bank Line” provides a direct, easily graded line between Vancouver, WA, Pasco, WA, and Spokane, WA, with connections to the east provided by the GN and NP. At the same time, the Northern Pacific extends in Tacoma-Kalama line south to Vancouver, constructs bridges connecting Vancouver to Portland, and discontinues its ferry service between Goble and Kalama. Passenger service to Portland over the SP&S/NP route is inaugurated on Nov. 22, 1908.  The NP's North Coast Limited now uses two sections, one terminating in Seattle and running over Stampede Pass, the other terminating in Portland and running via the SP&S. The two sections are separated/joined at Pasco for the trip from/to St. Paul and Chicago. Similarly, the Portland-bound portion of GN’s Oriental Limited is diverted from the Union Pacific-controlled OR&N to the SP&S.
• 1910 - Portland's population reaches 207,214, the nation's 28th largest city. However, Seattle has now surpassed it with 237,194, due in large part to that city's greatly improved rail connections as well as a population influx resulting from the Alaskan gold rush in 1897-99 (Seattle served as the southern terminus for Klondike-bound steamships).
• 1910 - Union Pacific completes its purchase of the OR&N and renames the property Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company.
• 1912 - The Great Northern completes its Surrey Cutoff, a direct connection between Fargo and Surrey, ND, that shortened the transcontinental route by 52 miles. From 1912 onward, the GN-SP&S combination provided the shortest freight and passenger route from Portland and the Columbia River Valley toward the east. Today, under successor BNSF, the SP&S line handles the majority of the freight traffic between the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest and east.
• 1926 - Southern Pacific launches the new overnight Cascade train between Portland and Oakland. The train replaces the Shasta Limited and operates over the Natron Cutoff over the Cascade Mountains via Klamath Falls rather than over the Siskiyous via Ashland like its predecessor.
• 1929 - GN introduces the Empire Builder, one of the most famous passenger trains of all time. The new train uses the same routing as the Oriental Limited (with two sections to reach both Seattle and Portland), which continues in operation as a second-class service.
• 1935 - The Union Pacific launches the City of Portland, the first streamliner between Chicago and the Pacific Coast. The train makes the trip in just 39 hours 45 min at an average speed of over 50mph, including stops..
• 1936 - The Union Pacific takes out a 999 year lease on subsidiary Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. (formerly OR&N) on January 1. The O-WR&N was finally merged into the UP on Dec. 30, 1987.
• 1970 - GN and NP merge to form the Burlington Northern. Initially, the SP&S continues a separate corporate existence on paper, but it is leased and operated by the new BN until it is fully merged in 1979.
• 1970 - As a concession to the BN merger, The Milwaukee Road (Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad) gains trackage rights over a portion of the ex-NP line between Seattle and Portland. This gives the city a new transcontinental link to the east, and replaces the former GN-NP competition with BN-MILW competition.
• 1971 - AMTRAK is formed and takes over most of the nation's intercity passenger rail operations. This includes GN's Empire Builder, which continues to connect Portland and Seattle with Chicago. The Coast Starlight, running up and down the Pacific Coast from Seattle to Los Angeles, is inaugurated in the same year.
• 1980 - The Milwaukee Road, under bankruptcy, abandons its transcontinental line west of Miles City, MT, leaving Portland with three Class 1 railroads: BN, SP, and UP.
• 1982 - Tri-Met begins construction of a new line between downtown Portland and Gresham, the city's first light rail line. The new service, called the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX), would be opened on September 5, 1986.
• 1993 - Tri-Met begins construction of MAX's westside line, extending the original Gresham-Portland line to Beaverton and Hillsboro. Service begins September 12, 1998.
• 1995 - The holding companies of the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Santa Fe Railway (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway) consolidate into the new Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation on September 22, 1995. Merger of the railroads to form the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. is delayed until December 31, 1995. The railroad's name will be officially changed to BNSF Railway Co. on January 24, 2005.
• 1996 - Union Pacific regains its title as the continent's largest railroad by merging the Southern Pacific on September 11. Portland is now down to just two Class 1 railroads.

For Further Reading...

• Union Pacific Railroad's History Page: http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/index.shtml
• Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society: http://www.pnwc-nrhs.org/
• Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway Historical Society: http://www.spshs.org/
• Portland State University's Oregon Encyclopodia: http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org
• Oregon Historical Society's Oregon History Project: http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/
• Pacific Southwest Railway Museum's Global Railroad History Timeline: http://www.sdrm.org/history/timeline/index.html
• The Library of Congress's searchable collection of railroad maps: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrhome.html
• A railroad lesson plan for teachers from the National Endowment for the Humanities: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/i-hear-locomotives-impact-transcontinental-railroad