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170 stories matching wharv
- The Waterfront Teeming with Global Trade
A look at the sheer variety of goods flowing through Seattle's wharves reveals a city rapidly expanding as a commercial powerhouse.
- Mill Owners Battle State Over Waterfront Rights
A major lumber company files an injunction to stop the State Harbor Line Commission from seizing mill property and wharves under new, secret harbor mapping.
- The Great Reconstruction: Seattle’s Waterfront Rises from the Ashes
Less than a month after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the city’s wharves are a hive of frantic, round-the-clock labor to restore the vital commerce of the Pacific.
- A Boy's Fishing Line Hauls Up 20 Pounds of Smuggled Opium
Lucky children and treasury agents netted a smuggler's jettisoned cargo from under Seattle's wharves — and the owner was never found.
- Tacoma Builds a Waterfront for the China Trade
The Northern Pacific begins rock walls, warehouses and wharves to capture trans-Pacific commerce—and a flour mill is already following.
- Linking the Garden City to the River
Businessmen in Walla Walla look to dominate Columbia River trade by building a high-speed road and wharves at Wallula.
- Runaway Horses Plunge Into Waterfront Slip, One Drowns
A runaway horse team plunges into the harbor near the wharves, resulting in the death of one animal.
- The Struggle of the Sailors' Home
While Seattle’s churches held regular Sunday services, a pressing plea for a new facility on the wharves highlighted the neglect faced by the city's waterfront laborers.
- The Shipworm Eating Seattle’s Waterfront
Wharf owners were spending a fortune fighting a saltwater pest. The fix: fill the tide flats, cut freshwater waterways, and make the harbor safe for pilings—and insurance.
- The Ghost Town of a Pioneer's Dream
A German immigrant spends decades waiting for his Puget Sound homestead to become a metropolis, only to see the boom vanish as quickly as it arrived.
- The Promised Heights of West Seattle
A booster-era description of a neighborhood rising above the clouds, promising a future of wharves, factories, and mountain views.
- Startled Horse Backs Off City Wharf and Drowns
A valuable horse, spooked by the city's sudden bustle, backs off a Seattle wharf and drowns.
- The Hidden Destroyer of Seattle’s Waterfront
In 1877, Seattle property owners faced a silent maritime menace: a wood-boring mollusk called the 'Teredo' that could collapse a wharf from the inside out.
- Port Discovery’s Busy Wharves and the Mill That Ran Full Time
A short steamer voyage from Port Townsend in 1876 found new wharves, a bigger engine house, and a lumber mill employing about 100 men.
- Tacoma Recalls the Great 'Wharf-Destroying' Blizzard of 1902
As a new winter storm hits the Sound, residents look back with dread on a 1902 weather event that claimed wharves, machinery, and lumber.
- The Night Watchman's Dilemma: A Call for Safety on Seattle’s Dark Wharves
In September 1876, the Seattle City Council was urged to intervene after late-night passengers were forced to navigate dangerous docks alone, highlighting the precarious nature of early urban infrastructure.
- 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.
- Northern Pacific Piles Block Commencement Bay Landing
Business owners clash with the Northern Pacific Railroad over the blocking of a vital waterway, forcing a community to fight for their access to the harbor.
- The Waterfront 'Dead Animal' Grift
Seattle's city health authorities discover a morbid, recurring scam involving dead horses and the tides.
- Longshoremen Walk Out Over Wages
Workers at the Seattle steamship wharves demand a raise to 50 cents an hour, sparking a labor standoff.
- The 15,000-Word Plan to Build a Great Harbor on Seattle's Tide Flats
Virgil Bogue's report to King County proposes dredged slips, public docks, a union station and a jointly owned terminal railroad—if Seattle can sort out its tide-land titles.
- The Iron-Jawed Worm That Ate Seattle's Wharves
At the foot of Harrison Street, the Colman family has a new weapon against the teredo worm: steam, a vacuum, and a dose of dead oil of tar.
- 1878 Seattle Grapples With Nationwide Money Shortage
While 1878 brought economic panic across the nation, Seattleites rejected the idea that their town was failing, pointing to local grit and coal-laden wharves as the true engines of progress.
- The Waterfront Flood That Never Was
Hundreds of Seattleites gathered at the waterfront, expecting a disastrous high tide prediction that failed to materialize.
- The Real Estate Fever That Never Broke
As coal shipments swell and new wharves rise, Seattle’s property market remains feverish in May 1889—just months before the Great Fire reshaped the city.