The City’s Missing Depot: A Railway Power Struggle
When the Seattle Star reached out to the Canadian Pacific Railway, they found the railroad giant had no interest in building a union station in the city.
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.
Editor of the Seattle Daily Star telegraphed the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, T. J. Shaughnessy, to ask if the company would join the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads in a proposed union depot for Seattle. President Shaughnessy replied that his company does not reach Seattle over its own rails, but uses the lines of another company under a temporary traffic agreement. He stated the Canadian Pacific would not be a direct factor in the union station project. The newspaper concluded that the burden of the improvement must be borne by the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern railroads, as the Canadian Pacific management does not hold itself responsible for furnishing depot facilities for lines simply using track privileges into Seattle.
“The Canadian Pacific management does not hold that any line using track privileges into Seattle in the future is to furnish depot facilities.”
This 1899 dispute over the 'union depot' highlights the long-standing tension between Seattle’s civic leaders and the private railroad cartels that dictated infrastructure. Much like today's arguments over light rail expansion or transit-oriented development, the city's future growth was then held hostage by the boardroom decisions of interstate transport giants.
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