The Great Canal Dream of 1887
A visionary project to link Lake Union and Lake Washington promises to turn Seattle into a fresh-water harbor, revolutionizing the lumber industry and securing the city's future.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
While I was in Seattle a very small improvement was inaugurated, destined yet, I think, to be one of the most important to Seattle of all its natural advantages. Immediately behind the city lies Lake Union, a small lake of great depth and filled with the purest water. Three quarters of a mile from Lake Union lies Lake Washington, over thirty miles long and from one to four miles wide. Lake Washington is surrounded by forests of the most valuable timber, but to get this timber to the mills on the Sound has been exceedingly troublesome. A number of gentlemen have associated themselves and cut a small canal connecting Lake Union and Lake Washington. The canal was opened and the first raft of 120,000 feet of logs has been collected; it is but the beginning, you may say, but one containing the germ of great possibilities. A first-class water power may be made available between the lakes, and another between Lake Union and the harbor. The grand end which I believe this small business is destined to attain is to make Lake Washington a fresh-water harbor and the grand naval station for the Pacific fleet. A fresh-water harbor has immense advantages; for instance, ships at sea are subject to be covered with barnacles and have to be put on the 'gridiron' or 'dry-dock' and periodically scraped. Lying for a few days in fresh water kills the barnacles and cleans the ship's bottom. Fresh water exerts no corrosive action on iron ships. Furthermore, the large mills sawing for export are compelled to be on the Sound where ships can come directly to the mills to be loaded. If ships can get to Lake Washington, the large amount of timber tributary thereto will be sawed in fresh water.
“It is but the beginning, you may say, but one containing the germ of great possibilities.”
This 1887 report captures the early optimism behind the Montlake Cut and the Lake Washington Ship Canal. While today's debate centers on how to protect these waters from urban runoff and rising land costs, 19th-century boosters saw the canals primarily as a tool for industrial efficiency and naval dominance.
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