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114 stories matching subsidi
- The Canal or Bust: Seattle Rallies to Buy Its Own Waterway
A packed crowd cheers a plan to hand St. Louis capitalists a public subsidy to dig the south canal and fill the tide flats of the lake — with a grand mass meeting called for the Armory.
- Seattle Passed the Hat to Dig Its Canal
A six-week citizens' campaign filled the Lake Washington waterway subsidy with $1 donations, corporate checks and a Kirkland land pledge—then declared the work ready to begin.
- The Price of the Iron Horse
Boosterism, county subsidies, and the hidden cost of corporate expansion in Walla Walla.
- Seattle’s Half-Million-Dollar Canal Fund Ran Short—and the Committee Wanted Locals to Finish It
Boosters behind the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterway had raised nearly $500,000 in citizens’ subscriptions. With outside money slow to arrive, the committee urged Seattleites to double their pledges and close the tide-flat canal fund by Saturday.
- Seattle Raises Half a Million Dollars for the Lake Washington Canal
Washington's small-town papers marvel as Seattle's wealthy close a $500,000 subscription for the canal — and call it the secret of the city's relentless rise.
- Tacoma's One-Dollar Land Deal Lures an Iowa Rolling Mill
The Lake View Land Company deeds fifty acres south of Tacoma to Burlington, Iowa, mill managers for a dollar, betting a new plant will follow the subsidy.
- The Canal Fund Was Almost Full—and St. Louis Was Waiting
Seattle waterway boosters needed $50,000 to start contract No. 3. With a deadline looming, Eugene Semple promised the money in three or four days.
- The Fight Over Corporate Subsidies in the 1889 State Constitution
Delegates at the Washington Constitutional Convention engage in a heated debate over whether counties should be allowed to use public tax money to subsidize private railroad construction.
- St. Louis Money Was Ready—If Seattle Guaranteed the Canal
In 1895, a citizens' committee moved to raise a public subsidy for locks, bridges and right-of-way so a $7 million tide-flat and canal scheme could begin.
- Seattle's Canal Subsidy Climbs Another Notch—and the Big Money Is Still Waiting
Boosters for the Lake Washington Waterway Company's ship canal report another $1,000 in pledges, while banks and business houses hold back to see what their neighbors will give.
- Pike Street Merchants Open Their Wallets for a Seattle Canal
A volunteer subscription drive added nearly $20,000 to the south canal fund, with Pike Street merchants leading the push and a railroad receiver boasting of Seattle's 'backbone and grit.'
- The Canal Fund Creeps Toward Its Goal
Seattle’s Lake Washington waterway subsidy inches upward as a Northern Pacific Railroad lawyer promises Eastern capital will do its part.
- Seattle Tries to Buy Its Own Canal
Boosters fan out to raise a $300,000 subsidy for the Lake Washington canal and tide-flat fill, promising work to Seattle men and asking every resident to become a committee of one.
- Seattle Bets $7 Million on a Canal Through the Tide Flats
St. Louis capitalists will dredge a waterway from Lake Washington to the Sound and fill the flats with new ground — if the subsidies come through. The paper calls it the making of the city's commercial supremacy.
- The 'Key City' Hype Machine: A 19th-Century Real Estate Fever Dream
Before Seattle cemented its dominance, Port Townsend was positioning itself as the 'future great city of the New Northwest,' fueled by a massive, speculative railroad subsidy.
- The Canal That Would Give Seattle the Finest Harbor on the Pacific
An 1895 editorial urges Seattleites to back a half-million-dollar subsidy to fill the tide flats and dig a canal linking Puget Sound with Lake Washington.
- Rep. LaFollette Tackles Merchant Marine Policy
At a Commercial Club luncheon, Congressman William L. LaFollette discussed his opposition to federal ship subsidies and defense propaganda.
- The $300,000 Push to Dig Seattle's Canal
Businessmen and volunteers canvass the city for subscriptions to the Lake Washington Waterway, promising the money will be raised by Saturday.
- Kent Bids for the Electric Rail
Citizens and business leaders in the White River Valley rally to secure a $100,000 subsidy for an electric railway line to Seattle.
- Seattle Wagers Half a Million on a Canal — and a Fortune on Mud
Hoping to unlock $2 million in St. Louis money, the city scrambles for a $500,000 subsidy for the Lake Washington waterway — with the dredged earth destined to turn Elliott Bay's tide flats into gold.
- Seattle's $100,000 Night: The Armory Meeting That Sold the Ship Canal
Boosters packed the Armory in 1895 and pledged a fortune for locks and bridges on a Lake Washington canal—payable only after a ship made the passage from Elliott Bay.
- The Thirty-Mile Dream: A New Air Line Between Seattle and Tacoma
Promoter Henry Bucey revived a plan for a broad-gauge railroad linking Tacoma and Seattle, promising a shorter route—if he could secure the right-of-way and land subsidies first.
- The Canal That Would Invent South Seattle
At meetings in Georgetown and River Park, property owners pledged land, cash, and labor to a waterway scheme they promised would drain the Duwamish and turn tide flats into gold.
- The Boomtown That Expected to Replace Seattle
In 1888, the 'Key City' of Port Townsend was convinced its massive rail subsidy and harbor status would make it the primary metropolis of the Pacific Northwest.
- Railroads Took 158 Million Acres of Public Land
A scathing editorial indictment of Republican railroad subsidies in the Pacific Northwest.