Plymouth, Washington — River Crossing Moved From Ferry to Freeway

Plymouth faces Oregon across the Columbia near the mouth of the Umatilla River.

Ferries once made that position useful, and a railroad along the Washington shore helped establish a permanent settlement.

The community tried the names Crimea and Expansion before settling on Plymouth in 1906.

Then John Day Dam changed the shoreline.

Reservoir backwater inundated portions of the old settlement in the late 1960s, and buildings were moved to higher ground when possible.

Modern Interstate 82 crosses the Columbia nearby, turning a journey once dependent on ferries into an ordinary highway trip.

Plymouth began because crossing the river was difficult.

Its modern landscape shows just how thoroughly engineers changed the problem.