Historic downtown The Dalles included the Dalles Railroad Depot on Union Street behind the current Post Office, built before 1910 near the ferry landing and used until its demolition in the 1960s; by the World War I era, automobiles shared the area with horse-drawn vehicles, and local long-distance rail travel had begun with the 1883 completion of the rail line from Portland to Chicago. North on Union Street, an extensive sandy beach served ships and the ferry, early boats burned large quantities of wood, the Washington-side ferry landing remained visible, and the sternwheeler Bailey Gatzert made daily round trips from Portland to The Dalles. In 1924, downtown The Dalles looked east on Second Street from Union Street with the original Post Office under construction, a general merchandise store where the modern Post Office would later stand, many north-side buildings still surviving, Second Street operating as a two-way street, and lighted street dividers placed in each intersection. In December 1884, a three-day blizzard dropped thirty inches of snow, and stories told of an entrepreneur who tunneled through the snow and charged twenty-five cents per person to cross Second Street. In 1922, a crowd gathered outside J.C. Penney Company and Boettcher Jewelers for the Pony Express Reenactment Race from The Dalles to Canyon City, where Jack McCarthy rode 189 miles in 19 hours, changing horses seven times, to win a grand prize of $750 in gold dust; J.C. Penney had arrived in The Dalles before 1915 as the Golden Rule Store, and the site later featured a modern representation of the Boettcher clock.