Seattle's Most Remarkable Day

We'll Build Our Own GawlDarned Railroad

Next Wednesday, May 1 is the 150th anniversary of what one Seattle newspaper writer in 1874 described as “the most remarkable day in the annals of town.” On that lowery day, all of Seattle gathered on the shores of the Duwamish River tideflats between what is now 9th Avenue South and Airport Way and a bit north of South Dakota Street. The citizens of the ambitious town had come to build a railroad that would be their ticket to the future. Almost a year earlier, on June 14, 1873, Arthur Denny had received a devastating one-sentence telegram. “We have located Terminus in Commencement Bay.” It had been written by Richard Rice and John C. Ainsworth, directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Not only would the great train company not come to Seattle, and finally connect the city with the rest of the country, but it would end its cross country tracks in Tacoma, Seattle’s most despised neighbor.

First trip of the Seattle and Walla Walla RR, courtesy of Seattle Public Library, spl_shp_22787

Over the previous decade, the still young and tenuous towns on Puget Sound had fought for the privilege of being the final destination of the Northern Pacific’s transcontinental route. Each town had wined, dined, and kowtowed to surveyors and executives hoping that the railway men would recognize the virtues of its location and build the NP’s terminus, forever putting their town on the map. Seattle’s ever-hopeful citizens had pledged 3,000 acres of land, 4,800 feet of waterfront property, 750 town lots, $50,000 in gold coin, and $200,000 in bonds. And this at a time when just 1,100 people lived in Seattle; Tacoma could claim only 200 residents.

Despite offering their soul, their land, and their money, Seattleites could not buy off the Northern Pacific. Since the railroad owned much of the land around Tacoma, it stood to gain far more when the town grew into its terminus status.

Tacoma’s triumph was a blessing in disguise. No longer did the Seattle establishment have to prostrate themselves to a rapacious, out-of-state company and its eastern money, though many of Seattle’s old guard would remain enthralled by the distant wealth. Nor did they have to give up what was and what would be property far more valuable in the hands of local citizens than corporate ownership. And, just as importantly, the city would retain more control of its own destiny.

It did so almost immediately, on July 17, 1873, in the “largest and most earnest meeting of citizens ever assembled,” wrote a Puget Sound Dispatch reporter. To hell with the NP, the crowd snorted with petulance and pride, we’ll build our own railroad. A week later the newly elected commissioners filed articles of incorporation for the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and Transportation Company.

Courtesy University of Washington Special Collections, UW 36354.

With the surveying completed over the winter of 1873-74, plans came together for a gala inauguration of the Seattle and Walla Walla RR to be held on Friday, May 1. The historic day began at 5:00 A.M. with a brass band playing, cannons blasting, and church bells ringing. Early risers road horses, walked, or traveled by wagon to the meeting point just east of the mouth of the Duwamish along the base of Beacon Hill. Two boats also ferried people and supplies, but they got stuck in the mudflats. The boats didn’t move until the afternoon tide came in; the would-be-workers didn’t suffer as the supplies included enough liquor to disable quite a few travelers.

Town was deserted by 9:00 A.M., with a thousand men, women, and children working on the railroad line. “Never, perhaps, were before seen in any gang of railroad laborers, so many soft hands, white shirts and gold chains,” observed one reporter. After a fine lunch, dignitaries gave earnest speeches till local curmudgeon Henry Yesler uttered it was “time to quit fooling and go to work.” The following week business in Seattle was noticeably less rushed than usual, as the workers recovered from their atypical exertions.

Seattle’s citizens cleared, grubbed, and graded nearly a mile. The work, according to “experienced engineers” was equal to at least $1,000 in contract labor. After the first day’s enthusiasm, spirits lagged with many fewer showing up the following week. But those who believed kept at the task, clearing and grading 12 miles up the Duwamish River valley by the end of October. Little work progressed after this point, primarily because of a nationwide economic slump and not until March 7, 1877, did train service begin on the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad.

The little railroad never lived up to its ambitious name and never made it past Renton. But Seattleites considered that a success because it opened up the coal fields on the east side of Lake Washington and helped make Seattle one of the most important suppliers of coal on the Pacific Coast. And, as anyone who has lived in Seattle for more than about 24 hours knows, proposing a major transportation infrastructure project is often more about talk than about doing it.

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I am honored to be the keynote speaker this Saturday, May 4, at the Washington State Historical Society’s Annual History Awards. It’s an amazing group of winners, who are doing wonderful helping all people to understand the past and make a better future.

And, for those a bit more interested in some of the details about sturgeon in Lake Washington, which I wrote about previously, here’s a piece I wrote about them for HistoryLink.