President Thomas Jefferson's vision, reflected in a letter of credit written in 1803, was close to being realized with less than 200 miles remaining, but first the Corps of Discovery had to shoot the rapids of the Narrows of the Columbia. Important supplies were portaged while the swimming members of the party boarded the canoes and cast off. The Short Narrows constricted the Columbia River to only 45 yards wide and a quarter of a mile long, and the Long Narrows were 150 yards wide and three miles long. Capt. William Clark wrote that the horrid appearance of the agitated, gut swelling water was boiling and whorling in every direction. By the standards of today's canoeists, this was a class V rapid, and the Corps made the run with their five heavy dugout canoes without incident.