page_title: Historic ferries in Oregon
section_title: Portland
hierarchical_section_title: Historic ferries in Oregon / Portland
caption_attribution_description: Taylor St Ferry in Portland, 1925.
context_page_description: Historic ferries in Oregon are water transport ferries that operated in Oregon Country, Oregon Territory, and the state of Oregon, United States. These ferries allowed people to cross bodies of water, mainly rivers such as the Willamette in the Willamette Valley, and the Columbia, in order to transport goods, move people, and further communications until permanent bridges were built to allow faster crossing of the water. The early ferries were used by wagons and pedestrians, while later ones transported trains and then automobiles. Oregon has a few automobile ferries still in operation.
context_section_description: One of the first ferries operating in what is now Portland, Oregon was Switzler's ferry that crossed the Columbia River in 1846 between the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver and the south bank of the river. Then in 1848, Stephen Coffin established a ferry on the Willamette using a wooden platform over canoes. The Stark Street Ferry operated from 1855 until ferry traffic declined due to the opening of the Morrison Bridge in 1887, and the removal of tolls on the bridge in 1895. In 1888, the completion of a railroad bridge (the original Steel Bridge) allowed the Oregon & California Railroad to cease using their passenger ferry, which had begun operations in 1870, using barges to move the trains across the river.  
   The Spokane Street Ferry, also called the Sellwood Ferry, shuttled passengers across the Willamette between Sellwood and west Portland. The final ferry, the John F. Caples, was discontinued in 1925 when the Sellwood Bridge opened.
  The last ferry service to operate in the Portland metropolitan area was the Sauvie Island Ferry, replaced in 1950 by the first Sauvie Island Bridge.
caption: The Spokane Street Ferry, the John F. Caples, in 1925
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