Portland District Celebrates 150 years

Credit: Tom Conning | Date Taken: 04/05/2021
Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers celebrates its founding, 150 years ago, April 17, 1871. That year, the War Department directed Major Henry M. Robert to establish a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Portland to address the growing importance of the Columbia and Willamette rivers as navigational waterways. As Portland District reflects upon its first 150 years as an organization, it’s important to note how far the organization has come, and the work that lies ahead. What started with one Army Major and his clerk looking to improve navigation routes, has grown into the nation’s largest civil works engineering firm with more than 14-hundred associates who are dedicated to serving the people and environment in the Pacific Northwest.