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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2021
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Columbia River Maritime Museum
ABOVE: A postcard with one of Astoria’s many trains pulling into town. BELOW: An advertisement for the Astoria & Columbia River Railroad.
The great railroad boom
The history behind luxurious vacations to the coast
By JULIA TRIEZENBERG
For The Astorian
F
or years, 19th-century Astorians
dreamed of a railroad that would
connect their town to the rest of
the country. Although Astoria was sit-
uated at the mouth of the Columbia
River, most shipping traffi c ended its
journey in Portland.
Throughout the better part of the
1800s, Astorians believed that a rail-
road’s construction would transform
their town into the booming port it
was meant to be.
As transcontinental rail lines
expanded west, Portland was once
again establishing itself as the termi-
nus for this type of travel. James J.
Hill’s Northern Pacifi c line technically
ended in Goble , so Astoria was once
again stranded.
Its residents took matters into their
own hands.
William Reid was originally con-
tracted to oversee the construction of
the Astoria & South Coast Railway,
which connected Astoria to Seaside.
However, Reid’s relationship with
his employers eventually fell apart,
and Astorians had to fi gure out yet
another way to connect the coast with
the rest of Oregon.
A businessman from Montana
named Andrew Hammond was hired
to fi nish what had been started.
Instead of continuing south along the
coast, Hammond built rail along the
Columbia River. He connected Asto-
ria with the Goble line, establishing
the Astoria & Columbia River Rail-
road in 1898.
At last, Astorians were linked to the
rest of the country in a totally diff erent
way. One promotional piece boasted,
“A railroad, speeding ahead of the
drifting Columbia River to the sea, or
gliding back up its toilsome currents,
was a dream of nearly half a century.”
Business boomed as tourists from
Portland fl ocked to the coast during
the summer. Seaside was one of the
most popular destinations.
In the early 1900s, Seaside’s pop-
ulation during the off -season was
around 500. At its peak during the
summer months, that number could
range anywhere between 5,000 to
10,000 people.
Now Portlanders who had strug-
gled to get to their vacation by boat
or horse-drawn carriage could make
a trip to the coast in just under fi ve
hours. Weekend excursion trains took
businessmen to the coast to visit their
families and would get them back to
Portland in time for work on Monday
morning.
During the railroad’s peak, the trip
from Portland to Seaside was meant to
be luxurious. Parlor cars held lounges
with velvety upholstered chairs, as
well as folding chairs that could be
taken to the observation decks outside.
It wasn’t always pleasant, though.
Some travelers reported that when the
train crossed over Young s Bay, they
would draw their shades or grip their
seats until it was over, the same way
nervous airplane passengers might
before they take off .
Passenger service declined over
the fi rst half of the 20th century until
it came to a halt in the 1950s. During
that time, companies exchanged hands
through multiple mergers and acquisi-
tions, including Burlington Northern’s
takeover of Astoria & Columbia River
Railroad , Great Northern Railway
and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle
Railway.
Burlington Northern sold off what
was left of the Astoria line in the
1990s. You can still see glimpses of
this once-thriving industry all along
the coast, including on the Astoria
Riverfront Trolley, which runs along
the Astoria Riverwalk.
Julia Triezenberg is an educa-
tor at the Columbia River Maritime
Museum.