NATURAL WATERWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES — HARTS, 569 



In the Columbia River above the mouth of the Willamette River 

 there are still many difficult obstructions, for the character of the 

 river changes abruptly at the Cascade Rapids, about 100 miles above 

 Portland. Here the river has cut its way down several thousand 

 feet through the Cascade Mountains in a narrow and precipitous 

 rocky gorge. To overcome these rapids a canal one-half mile long 

 was built over 20 years ago and opened to navigation in 1896. A 

 double lock, each part of which is 462 feet long, 92 feet wide, with 

 a depth of 8 feet on the sills and with a total lift of 24 feet, was 

 built and has been maintained in operation since then. It has cost 

 $3,825,000. River commerce has not developed in this upper part of 

 the river as was originally expected, as will be seen from the statistics 

 of recent five-year intervals. Until the channels in the upper river 

 are made safer, a great increase could hardly be expected ; and in the 

 meantime the railroads have been completed and have taken over 

 nearly all the increase in commerce of this prosperous region. In 

 1900 the commerce was 17,710 tons; in 1905, 35,166 tons; 1910, 32,794 

 tons ; and 1913, 33,219 tons. 



About 90 miles aboA^e the Cascades are the Celilo Rapids, a com- 

 plete bar at present to the use of the river at all stages. Here a canal 

 about 9 miles long is now being built, with four locks, each 300 feet 

 long, 45 feet wide, and 7- foot depth over the sills, to overcome a total 

 lift of 81 feet (pi. 8, fig. 2; pi. 9, fig. 1). This canal is being cut for 

 part of its length through the basaltic rock of the locality (pi. 9, 

 fig. 2), and the design of locks is somewhat unusual in the details of 

 the walls and gates. The estimated cost of the work is $4,845,000, of 

 which over $3,000,000 has already been spent and the work is now 

 more than two-thirds completed. The original project, now dis- 

 carded, provided for a boat railway on which vessels were to be 

 raised about 10 feet above the water at the upper end and dropped 90 

 feet at the lower end, after being transported about 9 miles overland. 

 The light construction of the vessels of the Columbia River and the 

 difficulty in building a car that would be suitable for safely canning 

 vessels over the vertical and horizontal curves which were indis- 

 pensable to the plan were some of the strong reasons Avhich caused the 

 abandonment of this project. 



Whether the commerce of the upper Columbia River, together 

 with that of the Snake, will ever warrant the high cost of this 

 canal and that at the Cascades is a problem that will require many 

 years in the future for solution. It was recommended that a portage 

 road be built around the Celilo Rapids before commencing on the 

 canal, in order to detennine the volume and character of the com- 

 merce which might develop. This portage road could be built for 

 about one-tenth of the cost of the canal, and could be used as a con- 

 struction road if the canal were ever built. The pressure for a canal, 



