Seattle Waterfront Owners Organize Against 'Ram's Horn' Right-of-Way
In 1892, Seattle property owners launched a crusade against the Northern Pacific Railroad to stop a monopolistic expansion of track rights that threatened to strangle the city's commerce.
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 property owners on the Seattle water front have taken steps to ascertain the opinion of the candidates for city offices on their petition to the council to grant no more franchises on Railroad Avenue unless the 'ram's horn' is abandoned. They have appointed Amos Brown, Isaac Dodson, and J.J. Post a committee to represent them, and these gentlemen have obtained 206 signatures to the following paper: 'We, the undersigned property owners and others, citizens of Seattle, hereby authorize a committee to call upon the various candidates for election to municipal office and sound them as to their views regarding what should be the policy of the city, touching the ram's horn right-of-way.' In pursuance of this authority, the committee has interviewed the candidates and obtained pledges from nearly all those on both Republican and Democratic tickets to continue opposition to the ram's horn. Meanwhile, President T.F. Oakes of the Northern Pacific railroad remarked that the railroad was willing to re-arrange the so-called ram's horn, provided they were given adequate facilities, suggesting that the city and the railroad need a 'clean up' of all outstanding franchise questions.
“We do not believe Railroad Avenue can get along without the ram’s horn. We are prepared to accept a franchise... but we want one clean up.”
The 'ram's horn' controversy—a metaphor for the tangled, monopolistic control of industrial waterfront space—echoes Seattle’s century-long struggle to balance private rail and shipping infrastructure with public access. Today, the debate over how to manage the waterfront’s transition from industrial hub to civic space continues the same fight for public agency against corporate consolidation.
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