The Great Seattle Regrade

O. N. Alexander, contractor on Jack street, has just fairly begun work. He has a dozen men digging out stumps and burning them and logs from Seventh street on to Eleventh. This will be followed as soon as possible by graders with horses, plows, scrapers and carts. His job takes in twelve blocks, from Commercial back to Twelfth, where he is met by the private subscription men with a continuance of the improvement on to Lake Washington. Main street is being improved from Second to Twelfth, by contractor Simpson. His men and animals are principally employed near Sixth street, where they have a huge job of filling, at the spot formerly occupied by the bridge. This bridge has been removed, and the low place it covered—thirty feet deep and a hundred long—will be filled with earth. More trouble has been experienced on Washington street than anywhere else; contractor Mr. Hoole has had a deal of trouble with his track and cars. Only yesterday he experienced quite a disaster, several loaded cars breaking loose at the head of the track and coming down with a rush, tumbling off into the crib-work at Fourth street. It is almost painful to see the expenses, temporary inconveniences and troubles house owners and tenants are put to in consequence of these grades. One of the most common is the cutting off of water pipes, another is the tearing up of the sidewalks, and a third is the wallowing through the dust. Blasting has been the means of breaking a number of windows in houses close by. Sidewalks put down last year at great cost are torn up this year. Some of the houses formerly on the street level are now twenty feet below, while others are twenty feet above. All these things, though, and the great expense besides, are cheerfully endured in view of the great good to come.