Seattle’s Relentless Boom
A rival paper questioned Seattle's future without a railroad, but the Post-Intelligencer argues that the city's growth is too rapid to ignore.
The Seattle Press questioned our future: 'With 10,000 population, Seattle is doing well, but will it live without the railroad?' We say, if not catered to by one railroad company, it will open doors to others. Seattle’s growth in 1883 was more than 50 percent over 1882, and proportionately in excess of that of Tacoma or any other town on the Pacific slope. The Northern Pacific Company cannot ignore this city. The closest interests of 30,000 people are centered in this city, and the number will increase rapidly from this on until it will include every inhabitant of the Territory. Including coal, merchandise from California, Oregon and the East, and exports of produce, 400,000 tons of freight were carried by boat or brought here in 1883, and it will not be surprising if the figures mount up to 600,000 tons in 1884. Seattle is now the northwestern terminus of the entire railroad system of the United States, and within five years will be one of the leading railroad points of the American continent.
“Seattle needs no commiseration or sympathy at the hands of anyone. Its growth in 1883 was more than 50 per cent over 1882.”
The 1884 preoccupation with 'transcontinental rail dominance' mirrors Seattle’s modern-day identity crisis as a regional hub dependent on external infrastructure—whether it's the 19th-century race for iron rails or the 21st-century race for tech and transport corridors.
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