Exploring our Industrial Heritage – Seattle (Part I)
I recently visited Seattle on my continued quest to explore our industrial heritage and I found that industrial roots run deep in the great northwest. Seattle was settled in the mid 1800’s as part of the western movement when the US government was giving away land in the west as an effort to expand its settled territory.
Early settlers tried to farm the land, but the areas land was fickle and didn’t produce traditional crops well. Soon the settlers found a better means to survive and profit: logging. The trees in the Seattle area were plentiful and large, some up to 400 feet tall. Bigger than any trees that exist in the world today. As we know, progress comes at a price. Many of these giant trees were cut and shipped to San Francisco to support their booming growth.
Seattle grew on the backs of the logging and fishing industries. Along with these industries came of course, loggers and fishermen. Furthermore, Seattle at the time was at sea level and since downtown Seattle was now without trees, high tide regularly flooded the streets. Seattle became a wet, muddy town occupied with many hard-working loggers and fishermen.
Seeing a marketing opportunity, less desirable industries moved into town such as drinking establishments and prostitution. These industries took advantage of a town filled with young, hardworking loggers and fishermen and provided “entertainment” in the midst of the sweat, mud, saw dust and fish guts. You can imagine the culture that grew. The moral fabric wore thin.
Interesting enough, the trees from the upper hills were skidded down through the middle of town, in order to position the timber for ships and transportation to San Francisco. This log skidding area, with drinking establishments and brothels lining it, became known as “skid row”. Now a common slang term used to describe a depressed area of any large city.
In 1889 Seattle burnt to the ground. Every building and wood structure was destroyed. One person died. But there was a silver lining to be found. A city planning mulligan. A do over. A fresh start. The city needed to be created above sea level such that the streets would no longer flood.
In an engineering marvel, they rebuilt the town. At first at sea level. Buildings were built as normal, on the existing ground, however this time they built with the idea that their first level floors would eventually become basement levels. Eventually, streets would be raised, and store customers would enter on the second stories of the buildings. First floors hence become more like basements. To move the dirt required to build up the street heights, the upper hill sides, inland from the immediate coast, were hit with high pressure water streams, like fire hoses. Dirt washed down into the town thus building up the streets by about 10 feet.
Eventually sidewalks bridged the space between the now higher roads and the buildings’ 2nd floor-levels. When complete, Seattle was raised above sea level and out of reach of the impending tides. Even to this day, oldtown Seattle has sidewalks that arch over a hallow space with the oldtown’s first stories still accessible beneath.
While the logging and fishing industries continued to support the economy, a new industry began to take form. The Klondike gold rush had drawn the attention of over 100,000 mining claim hopefuls to Alaska. At first, people just traveled up and across Canada since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, Canada became not too happy about that when caravans of unequipped travelers were dying in their country enroute to Alaska. So, Canada passed a law that Americans traveling from the continental US to Alaska through Canada were required to have one ton of supplies with them, ensuring their survival.
In comes Seattle. After the Canada law came into effect, it made sense for mining hopefuls to purchase supplies in Seattle and exit the continental US from the Northwest corner and travel the shortest distance through Canada. Once in Seattle, the travelers would need to purchase one ton of supplies for travel through Canada. To support these future miners, Seattle would need a marketplace to sell the goods. Merchants set up shop to sell to the travelers in what is now Pikes Place Market stands. Prior to the gold rush, Seattle was struggling economically. Selling supplies to hopeful gold miners saved the city from economic collapse.
Shipbuilding in Seattle peaked during WWI and crashed thereafter. So after the gold rush and the WWI shipbuilding boom, Seattle fell back on its mainstays, logging and fishing. Later, however, other industries provided stability and still do today. Continue reading about our industrial heritage and learn about Seattle’s industries today.
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