She is named after two children, Eldon and Trinity Smith, whose mother threw them off a bridge into Portland's Willamette River.
Bystanders drew the children from the water, but the Fire Bureau vessel sent to provide medical care, the powerful David Campbell, built in 1928, was slow to arrive, taking 44 minutes.
In 2013 a floating boathouse was built to service and store the Eldon Trinity.
[4][5] On February 22, 2012, firefighters using the Eldon Trinity rescued a man who had fallen into the swiftly flowing Willamette River, near the vessel's mooring.
Tom Williams, Portland's Fire Chief, called it "one of the fastest water rescues I have ever seen."