The Railway King vs. The 'Bow in the Ram's Horn'
James J. Hill, the legendary railroad titan, packs the Seattle City Council chambers to demand a straight track through the city's waterfront, warning that 'bottlenecking' the rails would cost the city its 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.
The announcement that President Hill of the Great Northern railroad would address the city council resulted in an immense audience. The chamber was packed, and it finally became necessary to throw open the doors to the corridors. A map of Seattle had been hung on the wall, showing how railroad tracks would run according to franchises granted on Railroad avenue. Particularly objectionable to Mr. Hill was a 'bow' in the track of the Oregon Improvement Company. Mr. Hill warned, 'If you permit any road to cut our rails into a bottle and cork it, you will never cease to regret it.' He insisted that to facilitate commerce, the tracks must be straightened. 'If you don't provide opportunities for traffic, other cities will benefit by it,' he warned. 'If your cup cannot hold all, some of it must overflow. I want to see your cup wide and deep that it shall contain all you will ever need to put into it.'
“If you permit any road to cut our rails into a bottle and cork it, you will never cease to regret it.”
This 1892 struggle over waterfront rail access echoes the century-long tension between Seattle's industrial infrastructure and its public space. Just as Hill feared that 'bottlenecking' the rails would throttle the city's growth, modern Seattle continues to grapple with the collision of maritime industrial utility, urban development, and regional transportation capacity along the downtown waterfront.
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