page_title: Willamette Falls Locks
section_title: Flood damage 1890
hierarchical_section_title: Willamette Falls Locks / Flood damage 1890
caption_attribution_description: English: Leaking gates at Lock 2 of the Willamette Falls Locks, April 10, 1899. The lock wickets are in closed position, but the gates are in such disrepair that water is streaming out through them. Photo probably shot from a government snag boat with a derrick seen in the image
context_page_description: The Willamette Falls Locks are a lock system on the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1873 and closed since 2011, they allowed boat traffic on the Willamette to navigate beyond Willamette Falls and the T.W. Sullivan Dam. Since their closure in 2011 the locks are classified to be in a "non-operational status" and are expected to remain permanently closed.
  Located in the Portland metropolitan area, the four inter-connected locks are 25 miles upriver from the Columbia River at West Linn, just across the Willamette River from Oregon City. The locks were operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and served primarily pleasure boats. Passage through the locks was free for both commercial and recreational vessels. The locks were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
  The locks comprise seven gates in four chambers which lift up to 50 feet elevation change with a usable width of 37 feet. The system is 3,565 feet long, and can accommodate vessels up to 75 feet long. Each of the four concrete constructed chambers are 210 by 40 feet.
context_section_description: The flood of 1890 seriously damaged the locks.  The canal was flooded with debris.  Two lock gates were destroyed, as was the home of lock tender Jack Chambers.  Additional work was scheduled to be done in 1893, which was anticipated to cost between $135,000 and $150,000.
  The projected work consisted of widening 1,300 feet of the canal to 80 feet, and replacing a decaying and leaking portion of the timber-built wall with a masonry structure.  The widened canal would permit a faster transit of steamboats through the locks by allowing them to pass each other in the canal, and would permit a greater accumulation of water for industrial and navigation use.
  Additionally, at a cost of $16,000, the lower lock was to be deepened to allow safe passage of the larger steamboats when the river was at a low water state.
caption: Leaking gates at Lock 2 of the Willamette Falls Locks, April 10, 1899.  The lock wickets are in closed position, but the gates are in such disrepair that water is streaming out through them.  Photo probably shot from a government snag boat with a derrick seen in the image.
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