Oregon Railway and Navigation Company
| Subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad | |
| Industry | Railroad and Shipping |
| Successor | Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company Union Pacific Railroad |
| Founded | 1879 (Origins trace back to 1860) |
| Defunct | 1910 (O.R. & N) 1936 (O.W.R. & N) |
| Headquarters | United States |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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Henry Villard |
| Parent | Union Pacific Railroad Company |
The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a railroad that operated a rail network of 1,143 miles (1,839 km) of track running east from Portland, Oregon, United States to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho. The railroad operated from 1896 as a consolidation of several smaller railroads.
OR&N was initially operated as an independent carrier, but Union Pacific (UP) purchased a majority stake of the line in 1898. The line became a subsidiary of UP titled the Oregon–Washington Railroad and Navigation Company in 1910. In 1936, Union Pacific formally absorbed the system, which became UP's gateway to the Pacific Northwest.
The OR&N was made up of several railroads:
The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's purchase of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company in 1880 gave it a partial route on the south (Oregon) side of the Columbia River. The company then pursued expansion of its Columbia River route, surveying from where the Oregon Steam Navigation tracks ended at Celilo and continuing east to Wallula. By 1882 the route along the Columbia River was complete.
Starting in 1880, one of the competitors of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company was the Shaver Transportation Company.
The company purchased right-of-way in 1882 from Alfred B. Meacham and John Harvey Meacham, along their Meacham Road through the Blue Mountains. The Meacham road, built in 1862, had a lower pass (4,185 feet (1,276 m)) than competing roads, and was a corduroy road, allowing it to hold up in poor weather conditions. The railroad was laid in 1884.
Before 1879, the Oregon Steamship Company provided passenger service onboard coastal steamships from San Francisco, California to Portland, Oregon, while the Oregon Steam Navigation Company operated multiple steamboats along the Columbia River. That year, the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company purchased the entirety of both companies, which helped to create a monopoly over transportation in Oregon. The large steamships City of Chester, George W. Elder and Oregon were included in the purchase.
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Wikipedia