americans began to arrive from the oregon trail. john mcloughlin was head man at fort vancouver and helped the americans with tools and seed. fort vancouver closed in the 1840s. the city of vancouver was incorporated in 1857 and was over three times as big by 1909. in 1917, the first bridge connecting oregon to washington over the columbia river was built from vancouver. in 1982 another bridge was built a few miles east for the i-205 freeway.