Navigation was the Corps of Engineers’ earliest Civil Works mission, dating to Federal laws in 1824 authorizing and funding the Corps to improve safety on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and several ports. The Corps provides safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems (channels, harbors, and waterways) for movement of commerce, national security needs, and recreation.
Walla Walla District staff designed, built and operate some of the highest lift locks in the world, with an average lift of more than 100 feet. Our navigation locks on the Snake and Columbia rivers help provide a navigable waterway 465 miles inland from Astoria, Oregon, to Lewiston, Idaho. During 2010 commercial shippers transported about 10 million tons of commodities.