King County Takes Over Tacoma
An estimated 11,000 Seattleites swarmed the Western Washington Industrial Exposition in Tacoma for 'King County Day,' creating the largest crowd in the exhibition's history.
Tacoma, Sept 16.—The turnstiles at the entrance of the exposition showed tonight that between 10,000 and 11,000 people, exclusive of the militia, were present on King county day. This is nearly twice the number of visitors on the previous most successful day in the history of the exposition. The Tacomans are delighted, and congratulate Seattle and King county on the large attendance. Never before has the big exposition been thronged by such an enthusiastic crowd. People were present from all parts of the state. Hundreds of visitors simply came and camped in the exposition all day. Many business men stood out on the streets and saw the crowds surge past, and in many instances declared they did not do business enough to pay rent. The street cars on the exposition line were crammed-jammed. Gov. Ferry was so impressed by the turnout that he remarked upon the feature of the attendance to a correspondent. From the vantage point of the balcony, the main floor of the building was simply one mass of humanity.
“I do not see how you are to get any more people on that floor.”
Long before the modern rivalry between the two cities solidified, Seattle and Tacoma relied on these elaborate displays of civic boosterism to compete for economic dominance in the Pacific Northwest. The sheer volume of visitors highlights the intense interconnectedness of the Puget Sound region even in 1892, a dynamic that remains the backbone of the region's growth today.
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