The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S) was a railroad in the northwest United States. Incorporated in 1905, it was a joint venture by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway to build a railroad along the north bank of the Columbia River. Remnants of the line are currently operated by BNSF Railway and the Portland and Western Railroad. History The railroad was chartered in 1905 by James J. Hill to connect the two transcontinental railroads owned by him, the Northern Pacific (NP) and Great Northern (GN), to Portland, Oregon from Spokane, Washington, to gain a portion of the lumber trade in Oregon, a business then dominated by E.H. Harriman's Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. Construction began in 1906 under the name Portland & Seattle Railway, proceeding to the east and south from Vancouver, Washington. The work included construction of three major bridges over the Columbia River, the Oregon Slough, and the Willamette River. The northernmost of these was the first bridge of any kind to be built across the lower Columbia River. Despite legal challenges from Harriman, within a year the line had been built as far as Pasco along the Columbia River, where it connected with NP. The first section to open was from Pasco west to Cliffs (near Maryhill), a length of , on December 15, 1907. Operation was extended west to Lyle, further west, on January 15, 1908, as construction continued on the section from Pasco to Vancouver. In January 1908 "Spokane" was added to the railroad's name, making it the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway. SP&S freight and passenger service (from Pasco) to Portland was inaugurated in November 1908. By 1909 the railroad had completed construction of its line up to Spokane along the Snake River. In 1910 SP&S gained control of the Oregon Electric interurban railway, which the Great Northern had acquired two years before. Under the control of the SP&S the railroad was extended southward to Eugene by 1912. SP&S also operated a second subsidiary railroad in western Oregon, the Oregon Traction Company, which owned a route along the south bank of the Columbia River, through Astoria to Seaside. A third route on which the SP&S operated extended southward from Wishram, Washington, to Bend, Oregon, was the Oregon Trunk Railway Company. Edward Harriman's Oregon & Washington Railway & Navigation Company also was building a railroad south from the Columbia River