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LEWIS AND CLARK’S Discovery Corps portaged around the rapids of the Cascades in 1805. Forty years later the pioneers traveling the water route on the OREGON TRAIL were forced to make the same portage. The small settlement that grew up on the banks of the Cascades was involved in helping early travelers on the river get around the rapids, first by foot and then by mule-drawn rail cars.
The little OREGON PONY, the first steam engine in the Northwest, carried passengers and freight past the rapids in 1864. Today, the engine can be seen in PORT OF CASCADE LOCKS MARINE PARK very near the site where it was first used.
With the completion of the navigational canal and locks at the site of the rapids in 1896 the modern-day Cascade Locks was born.
The whistles of the sternwheelers making their runs from Portland to The Dalles and back each day echoed from the surrounding mountains. The names of the sternwheelers - The Belle, The Sadie B, Regulator, Harvest Queen and the most famous of all, The Bailey Gatzert - were legends in the Columbia River Gorge.
Indian legend says the Great Spirit built a bridge of stone across the Columbia River that was a great gift. Scientist say that about 1,000 years ago the mountain on the Washington side of the Columbia river near what is now the town of Cascade Locks, caved off, blocking the river. The natural dam was high enough to cause a great inland sea covering the inland prairies as far away as Idaho.
For many years, natural erosion slowly weakened the dam and finally washed it out. The waters of the inland sea rushed out, tearing away more of the earth and rocks and until a great tunnel was formed under the moutain range leaving a natural bridge over the water. The bridge was called "The Great Cross Over" and is now named "The Bridge of the Gods."
The Bridge of the Gods as it exists today was completed by the Wauna Toll Bridge Company in October of 1926.The total cantilever structure length is 1131 feet; overall bridge length is 1858 feet and width is 35 feet.With the construction of Bonneville Dam in 1938 the Bridge had to be raised to accommodate the rise in back water from the new dam. The Bridge was raised 44 feet from it’s existing 91 feet to a total of 135 feet aboue the Bonneville pool.
The Bridge of the Gods was purchased by the Port of Cascade Locks in 1961 and has been operated and maintained by the Port since that time.
The Bridge of the Gods is the third oldest bridge on the Columbia River. It plays a major role inthe Pacific Crest Trail by linking Oregon and Washington states.
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