The NPRR completed its transcontinental route in 1883 when it finished laying tracks from Portland to Goble, across the Columbia from Kalama. To connect the rails, a transfer steamer was built. Originally called the Kalama, this ferry was sent knocked down on a Boston clipper ship to Portland where it was reassembled in 1884. Renamed the Tacoma, the  train ferry began operations between Goble and Kalama on October 9, 1884. Northern Pacific operations from Puget Sound to Portland continued to include this ferry service until a railroad bridge was built across the Columbia at Vancouver in 1908. NPRR's trans-Cascade route was not completed until 1887. The ferry was powered by two large steam engines.  Each engine had a piston three feet in diameter and a stroke of nine feet.  Purchased for a sum of $400,000 in 1883, the Tacoma was built in Delaware, disassembled into 57,179 pieces, shipped around the tip of South America, and reassembled in Portland, Oregon.