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757 stories matching shore
- The Terminal Standoff: How Seattle’s Business Elite Forced a Railroad Compromise
In January 1899, the city’s Board of Trade and leading merchants intervened in a bitter dispute between the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad and the Puget Sound Shore Railroad, demanding the construction of vital terminal warehouses to save freight from the elements.
- The Wharf King’s Victory: Yesler Wins Millions in Land Battle
Judge Lichtenberg rules that the state cannot seize waterfront property without paying just compensation, halting the Harbor Line Commission and protecting H.L. Yesler’s empire.
- When the Great Railroad Strike Reached Seattle
In July 1894 the Pullman boycott finally tied up the Lake Shore road in Seattle — local switchmen walked out in sympathy, and the company answered with firings, Winchester-armed deputies and a federal judge.
- The Seattle Water-Hose Rail War of 1888
When two rival railroads fought over a contested stretch of waterfront track, the dispute escalated from legal threats to a chaotic brawl involving barricades, hired detectives, and a fire hose.
- The $10,000 Gamble: How Seattle Citizens Bought Their Way to the World
In a desperate bid to secure a transcontinental rail link and outmaneuver rival Tacoma, local merchants pooled their own money to subsidize the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway.
- The Homegrown Railroad That Opened the Snoqualmie Country
Seattle citizens incorporated the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern in 1885 to reach Gilman, North Bend and Snoqualmie Falls. Northern Pacific took control, receivership followed, and the line kept loggers alive through the depression.
- Trapped by the Tide on the Road to Queets
In 1892, poet Herbert Bashford joined a camping party for a walk up Washington’s wild Olympic coast—and found the rising tide more dangerous than any highwayman.
- Two Railroads Cut a Deal Through Ballard
The Ballard council ratified a track-swap agreement between the Seattle & Montana and the Lake Shore & Eastern, settling access to Shilshole Avenue and the mills.
- The Shadow of the Fortress at Esquimalt
An 1889 editorial argues that the growing military presence across the border in British Columbia demands a rapid response from the U.S. government to fortify Puget Sound.
- Railroad War Erupts on the Seattle Waterfront
The Great Northern and Lake Shore railroads face off in a midnight standoff over coal bunker right-of-way.
- The Corporate Takeover of the Lake Shore Line
A legal battle reveals how the Northern Pacific Railroad absorbed a smaller rival, leaving shareholders and the public in the dark about the true costs of regional expansion.
- The Millionaire’s Gamble: Ryan & McDonald Awarded the $3M Rail Contract
New York contractors secure the massive deal to connect Seattle and Spokane Falls in just two years, promising to unlock Eastern Washington's grain and timber wealth.
- The Canal That Would Make Seattle an Island
In 1883, surveyors proposed locks and canals linking Lake Union and Lake Washington to tidewater—so coal could move by water and Seattle could 'practically stand on an island.'
- The Blaine Fisherman Who Pulled Seven People Out of the Water and Never Told Anyone
Hans Nielson is 24 years old, slight of build, and has saved seven lives in ten years — two in Denmark, five around Blaine — and calls each rescue a thing 'only incidental to the life of a water toiler.'
- The Consolidation That Reshaped Seattle’s Waterfront
When the Northern Pacific swallowed the Lake Shore road, it signaled the end of a chaotic era for Seattle’s docks and a tightening grip on the city’s industrial spine.
- The Railroad Man Who Gave Seattle Its First Real Baseball Team — Then Lost Everything
W. R. Thornell organized the Pacific Northwest League and the 'Seattle Reds,' then lost his bank job over a forged note. Bright's disease took him at Paddock Memorial Hospital in Tacoma; he was buried in the city that once cheered him.
- The Railroad Rate That Could Sink a Shingle Mill
As Seattle shingle manufacturers weigh a boycott of the Northern Pacific, they look to the Great Northern—and worry the fight could hit local dealers.
- The Legislators Who Came to See a Ditch—and Left Believers
A steamboat tour of Smith Cove and Lake Union turns Eastern Washington lawmakers into ship-canal converts.
- Troops Take the Yards as Seattle Braces for the Great Railroad Strike
Regular artillery, deputy marshals and a nervous militia dig in across the city — even hauling the state's rifles up to the university for safekeeping — as the 1894 Pullman boycott reaches Puget Sound.
- The Judge Who Warned Seattle Not to Sell Its Waterfront to a Canal Company
In 1894, Judge John J. McGilvra urged Congress to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal and warned that a private company's tideflat scheme would put tolls on the water and enrich speculators at public expense.
- Seattle's Bid to Be the Liverpool of America
In 1895, boosters imagined a Lake Washington ship canal turning Puget Sound into a freshwater harbor for world commerce, coal trade, and naval power.
- A Railroad Cut Off This Tacoma Mill. Now the City May Give It a New Way In.
The North Shore Lumber Company wants to rebuild its burned plant beyond Old Town, but Northern Pacific condemnation left it without waterfront access. A permit to sluice logs over Alder Street could bring 100 jobs and a 100,000-foot-a-day mill back to the gulch.
- The Man Who Bought His Own Death
In a Seattle saloon in 1877, a gambler named 'Hilly Hacker' was challenged by a stranger with a shotgun. Hacker’s response? He bet the man $50 that he could buy him 20,000 shares of stock at a higher price before the market opened—proving his nerve was stronger than any weapon.
- The Seattle-Shore Line Deadlock
A standoff between the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Improvement Company leaves the vital Shore Line trackage idle.
- A Section Foreman's Death at Gilman, and the $100 He Sent Home to Ireland
J. G. Caroian, a Lake Shore road foreman, was killed switching cars at Gilman. His Odd Fellows lodge will bury him at Marysville; his aged mother in Ireland will get no more Christmas money.
Also about this, in other words
- Who Owns the Shore? The Fight for Salmon Bay's Tide Flats
State land commissioners hear five contests over tide lands at Ballard, where railroads, mill companies and upland owners all claim the right to buy the waterfront.
- Bondholders Seize Control of the Lake Shore Road
A New York trust company secures the appointment of a co-receiver for the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, signaling an imminent move toward foreclosure.
- The Struggle for Shore Access at the Waterfront
A squatter on the Northern Pacific tide lands faces a showdown with a steam-powered pile driver.
- A Veteran Railroader Reflects on Seattle’s Industrial Growth
After a year as Lake Shore superintendent, I. A. Nadeau retires from the position, looking back on the era when the city’s rail freight grew from a single car of hardware to a hub of transcontinental commerce.
- Debating the Tide Lands
A committee weighs how the state will hold, lease, and sell shore lands in the new constitutional framework.
- The Struggle for the Shore Line Rail Connection
Engineers and investors grapple with iron shortages to connect Seattle and Tacoma, highlighting the city's urgent need for direct rail access.
- The New Station at O’Brien
A small railroad milestone marks the expansion of the Puget Sound Shore line just ten miles from Seattle.
- Federal Court Takes Control of the Lake Shore Railroad
After legal intervention, a federal receiver takes the helm of the beleaguered Lake Shore and Eastern line, keeping operations under the Northern Pacific contract.