The Fight for Seattle’s Commercial Future
A local merchant defends Seattle against the Northern Pacific Railroad's efforts to favor Tacoma as the terminal 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.
If the letter of Mr. C. B. Wright, President of the Tacoma land ring, foreshadows the financial situation of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, then indeed has Seattle nothing to fear in her efforts to maintain her commercial supremacy. The objects of his letter are apparent: to bolster up Tacoma and to give people the impression that the railroad has no interests in Seattle. It is a well-known fact that both the railroad and the land ring have large land interests in a harbor farther down the Sound, explaining their eagerness to sell Tacoma property. They know too well that the grade into Tacoma is the load that breaks the camel's back, and they do not mean to be beneath the wreck. Seattle will go right ahead, building up and adding to her numerous enterprises, just as she did once before when the company took shelter under the Tacoma bluffs. Seattle has nothing to fear from the results of the interest of Mr. Wright or Mr. Oakes, nor from the financial embarrassments of the Northern Pacific. While this company is recuperating, Seattle will be adding to her strength, which is now a hundred-fold greater than in the memorable days of 1878, when she held the fort.
“The grade into Tacoma is the load that breaks the camel's back, and they do not mean to be beneath the wreck.”
This 1883 letter captures the high-stakes 'Railroad Wars' between Seattle and Tacoma. Seattle’s survival depended on its ability to circumvent monopoly control, a theme that echoes in contemporary debates about tech giants and regional infrastructure dominance.
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