The Dream of a Boat-Accessible Seattle
Contractor J.J. Cummings prepares to connect the lakes, promising a future where residents can row entirely around 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.
Mr. J. J. Cummings, the successful bidder on the contract to cut a canal between the two lakes, and also to open the outlet to Lake Union, is getting ready for active operations at once. He has engaged 100 white men and twenty teams to begin work on Monday. The canal will be 30 feet wide in the bottom, and the greatest cut will be 36 feet deep. Mr. Cummings has contracted with Yesler for lumber to build shelter for his men and teams, and also for the necessary timbers in prosecuting the work. A sufficient force of men will be placed on to complete the work in ninety days. The contractor says he is willing to make a small wager that inside of three months a person can go entirely around Seattle in a row boat.
“The contractor says he is willing to make a small wager that inside of three months a person can go entirely around Seattle in a row boat.”
This early 1883 vision of a canalized Seattle predates the official opening of the Lake Washington Ship Canal by decades, showcasing the immense early civic ambition to re-engineer the city's geography for transit. Today, the Ballard Locks and the ship canal are central to the identity of the city, serving both the leisure boats the contractor dreamed of and a vital commercial waterway.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.