As rail competition grew, and forced steamboats off their old routes, shippers and steamboat lines began agitating Congress to allocate funds for improvements to the river, in the form of canals and locks, that would restore their competitive position relative to the railroads.
Studies for a canal at the Cascades had begun in 1875, but interest tapered off when Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (O.R.& N.) finished the railroad to The Dalles and took its boats off the middle river.