A white cantilevered walkway soars over the Columbia, held by a mast and cables like a taut sail: the Grant Street Pier sets the tone for a port of call that is anything but a mere suburb of Portland. River ships moor at the old Terminal 1 dock, near the Interstate Bridge, at the foot of a completely redesigned riverfront. In a few steps, you go from mooring lines to terraces, then to the lawns of a riverside park where residents come to run alongside the current. A small point of local pride: founded before its famous Canadian namesake, the city readily presents itself as the original Vancouver.

A reinvented riverfront

Waterfront Park unrolls its promenade along the Columbia, dotted with public art, small plazas and water features. Former industrial land has given way to tasting rooms where wineries from the neighbouring valley pour their pinots and syrahs, to restaurants facing the water and to cafés buzzing from the morning on. From the tip of the Grant Street Pier, suspended above the bank, the view stretches to the hills of Oregon, just across the river, and to the long strings of barges heading upstream. This new district tells the story of a city that has rediscovered its river after a century of sawmills and warehouses.

Fort Vancouver, at the origins of the Northwest

Less than three kilometres from the landing, a wooden stockade recreates the great trading post founded in 1825 by the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort Vancouver was then the hub of the fur trade for the entire Northwest, long before the creation of the states of Washington and Oregon: French, English, Chinook and a dozen other languages were spoken here. Inside, the blacksmith shop, store and kitchen come back to life through costumed interpreters, and the garden reproduces period crops. Right next door, Officers Row lines up its Victorian homes beneath the maples, while Pearson Field, one of the oldest airfields still in operation in the country, displays its canvas-and-wood aircraft in a hangar museum.

Esther Short Park and downtown

Heading up toward the heart of the city, you come to Esther Short Park, one of the oldest public squares in the American West, with its carillon bell tower, tall trees and a fountain where neighbourhood children play. On weekends in the warm season, a farmers' market sets out valley fruit, flowers, cheeses and street food, in a good-natured atmosphere that shows the city's true character. The surrounding streets mix craft breweries, bookshops and independent stores: plenty for a tasty break before heading back down to the water through the paths of the new district.

Port of call at a glance

Many Columbia and Snake River itineraries begin or end here, and the city suits this role as a threshold well: in a single day it sums up the history of the great river of the West, from canoes laden with furs to today's vineyards. As the dock recedes, your gaze returns to the white sail of the Grant Street Pier, which seems to salute the ships just as it salutes the current. You leave this shore with the feeling of having opened the first chapter of the story that the Columbia, gorge after gorge, will unfold throughout the voyage.