The upper approach was formed by masonry wall extending from the guard gate in a long sweep of 1,200 feet (370 m), and the bank behind was armored against floods with riprapped stone.

[4] In an 1897 article written shortly after their completion, Scientific American was optimistic about the future of the locks, saying: With cheaper rates, adjacent counties will ship from here, and, considering that this is but one point on a river navigable for several hundred miles, we see that the total of the freight of this country is very large.

Doubtless the railroads will still handle a large part of the business, but water transportation is always a most salutary regulator of freight rates, and everything consumed or produced in an area of probably 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) will be affected by these locks which open the great Columbia River to commerce.

In particular will the vast quantity of wheat raised in Eastern Oregon and Washington feel the improved rates of transportation to the coast, whence it seeks a market in Europe.

Not long later, in 1912, the Panama Canal Act made it illegal for a railroad to be owned in common with a competing steamboat line, so in 1915, Great Northern sold its boats.