the first railroad in Oregon, because the only prior construction to which the designation of "railroad" has been applied, as far as known, was two inconsequential roadways or bridges, extending, the one from Coffin's store to his wharf at Portland, and the other from the mainland to the Island Mills at Oregon City. There were railways projected in Oregon, years before the Oregon Portage Railroad was built, but these lines never passed the promotion stage.
When the Bradford railroad on the north or right bank of the Columbia river was built, in 1851, this was in Oregon Territory, but as so very shortly afterward, the national government set up Washington Territory out of what had been North Oregon, the writer has considered it only consistent with the facts to speak of that means of transportation as the first railroad in Washington, and the first on the Pacific slope.
I regret that I have not been able to find photographs of Ruckel and Olmstead, for reproduction here.
