Willamette Falls Locks

Willamette Falls Locks
(upper) Willamette Falls Locks 1990; (lower) Grahamona in transit, c. 1915
Specifications
Maximum boat beam	77.5 m (254 ft 3 in)
Locks	four
History
Original owner	Willamette Falls Canal & Locks Co.
Principal engineer	Isaac W. Smith
Date of act	October 26, 1868
Construction began	January 1, 1871 (1871-01-01)
Date completed	1873
Date closed	November 17, 2011 (2011-11-17)

Willamette Falls Locks
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Steamboat and barge traffic in the lock, c. 1915
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Location	West Linn, Oregon, US
Coordinates	45°21′19″N 122°37′3″W / 45.35528°N 122.61750°W / 45.35528; -122.61750
Built	1873
NRHP reference No.	74001680
Added to NRHP	1974

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 have been classified to be in a "non-operational status." In 2023, work began to repair the locks, which are expected to reopen in 2026.^[1]

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 and designated as an Oregon Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1991.^[2]

The locks comprise seven gates in four chambers which lift up to 50 feet (15 m) elevation change (depending on tides and river flow) with a usable width of 37 feet (11 m). The system is 3,565 feet (1,087 m) long, and can accommodate vessels up to 75 feet (23 m) long. Each of the four concrete constructed chambers are 210 by 40 feet (64 by 12 m).^[3]