The Proposal to Reshape Seattle's Waterways
A civil engineer proposes cutting a new channel between Lake Washington and Lake Union to prevent devastating floods in the Duwamish and White River valleys.
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.
O. F. Wegener, a civil engineer tasked with finding ways to prevent the floods that regularly inundate lands along the White, Cedar, and Black rivers, has submitted a proposal to county commissioners. He argues that Lake Washington's current outlet via the Black and Duwamish rivers is insufficient to handle the volume from heavy rainfall and mountain snowmelt. He suggests creating a new channel connecting Lake Washington to Lake Union, which would effectively drain excess water directly into the Sound. Wegener contends that widening the Duwamish channel would be prohibitively expensive and environmentally disruptive, whereas his plan would provide a shorter, more efficient outlet while also offering Seattle a potential supply of clean mountain water from the Cedar River.
“As the Duwamish and Black rivers... have not increased in width or depth to correspond with the quicker rise and increased volume of the lake water, the consequence is that the latter, having no sufficient outlet, floods the lands adjacent.”
This 1892 report predates the actual construction of the Montlake Cut and the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which ultimately altered the region's hydrology as Wegener envisioned. Today, managing the ecological impact of this engineered connection remains a central theme in Seattle’s environmental planning.
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