Protesting isn’t a new idea in Astoria, according to The Daily Morning Astorian, March 6, 1887:

• A mass meeting of the citizens of Astoria will be held at the court house on Monday evening for the purpose of expressing their views on the action of President Cleveland in defeating the appropriation for the improvement of the Columbia River Bar.

Note: Grover Cleveland was the first Democrat to be elected president after the Civil War, and was also the first with a gap between terms (1885-1889 and 1893-1897).

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: “Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1884, which authorized funds to construct a jetty at the Mouth of the Columbia River. This 4.5-mile-long jetty extended … into the Pacific Ocean. Initial construction of the South Jetty was completed in 1895.”

The acts that covered the South Jetty appropriation were constantly renewed, often annually. So even if Cleveland refused to sign it in 1887, clearly the work proceeded in the following years. (Image: Scientific American archives)