The Bold Plan to Create an Island City
Prominent citizens incorporate the Washington Improvement Company to carve a canal linking Lake Washington to Lake Union, promising to reclaim marshland and shift the city's geography.
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.
A meeting of citizens interested in the cutting of a canal between Lakes Union and Washington was held at the office of Eshelman, Llewelyn & Co. last evening. The group decided to incorporate the Washington Improvement Company under the laws of Washington Territory. The objectives include constructing a canal between the two lakes, clearing the outlet of Lake Union to Salmon Bay, and reclaiming marshy lands along the shores to open them for settlement. The promoters argue that since Lake Washington is six feet higher than Lake Union, the canal will drain overflowed lands, turning sluggish marshes into rich farming soil and preventing disastrous flooding along the White and Duwamish Rivers. With the canal completed, the city of Seattle would effectively be located on an island eighteen miles long, with a shoreline of over forty miles. The movers in this project declare they mean business, with subscription lists for the $50,000 capital stock opening Tuesday.
“With this few hundred yards of canal cut, the city of Seattle would be located on an island eighteen miles long.”
This 1883 vision of a 'canal-connected' Seattle eventually materialized as the Lake Washington Ship Canal, completed in 1917. The project fundamentally altered local hydrology, lowered the level of Lake Washington, and destroyed Indigenous fishing sites—a transformation that continues to define the city's identity and ongoing environmental challenges today.
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