for a railroad and the road is proposed to be completed in four months.[1]
Yes, hardly had the Pony commenced its journeys through the gorge when the Oregon Steam Navigation Company bought the Bradford & Co. portage railroad and undertook the immediate construction under the charter of the Cascades Railroad Company of a much more substantial railroad with T rails and locomotives of standard design.
The Oregon line had at this time again suffered at the annual rising of the Columbia river. The Daily Oregonian newspaper of June 12, 1862 reported that the Ruckel railroad was now impassable, a considerable part of it being under water. "No portion of it," the chronicler said, "has floated away, and it is thought that the piling of rocks on the planking will probably prevent much ser- ious injury." From the same newspaper in its issue of June 14, it seems that this altogether unprecedented[2] and, save for the June rise of 1894, since unequalled flood, had caused the caving in of the river bank at the middle of the railroad for about one hundred and fifty feet. The lower and upper parts of the railroad were still standing, and "large quantities of rock have been piled on the works, which will undoubtedly secure them from further damage provided the river does not raise any higher. Only the wings of Col. Ruckel's house have been washed away, and," said the scribe, "we are authorized to say that he is not yet a ruined man, the report in yesterday's Times to the contrary notwithstanding. * * * About two hundred tons of freight is now at the Cascades being gradually transported in wagons across the portage on the wagon road but under great difficulties. * * * *"
But the river presently subsided,[3] the railroad was repaired, and on July 19 J. C. Ainsworth wrote agent
