Expanding Seattle's Waterfront for Global Trade
Local builders begin a massive wharf expansion project to accommodate the largest steamships on the Pacific.
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The need for a large ocean dock in Seattle for the accommodation of big ocean steamships is about to be supplied. Arrangements have been completed for the construction of a wharf with a 300-foot face. It will be secured by widening out Baker's wharf in both directions. The present wharf has a face 122 feet in length, and Dobson & Denton and Architect Parkinson will construct an additional 120-foot face on the south side of the present wharf. This will extend back of the machine shops and join Ainsworth & Dunn's wharf, making a dock 242 feet long, including all the space between University and Seneca streets. Mr. Baker stated that the dock will afford room to discharge the largest of the Northern Pacific China steamships, the Victorian, at all four hatches at once.
“The dock, with a 300-foot face as contemplated, will accommodate any ship that sails the Pacific ocean.”
This 1893 expansion marks a pivotal moment in Seattle's transition from a regional hub to a gateway for Pacific trade. Today, the Central Waterfront is undergoing another massive transformation as the city moves away from the post-viaduct industrial era toward a public-facing park system.
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