The Hill Is Sliding Into the Sea: Seattle’s First Landslide Crisis
In November 1876, a slow-motion disaster threatened to bury a jeweler’s home and block Mill Street as nature reclaimed the southern slopes of Pioneer Square.
LAND SLIDE—The side of the hill which overlooks the southern portion of Seattle is gradually working its way down towards its base. The mud which was partially cut through it this last summer and fall, has been filled up by the sliding clay, and some portions have been pushed further down the hill. Our urban jeweler, Mr. Naher, is threatened with being landed at the bottom of Mill street with his residence and premises. Nature is doing a little hydraulicing on her own account.
This 1876 report captures one of Seattle’s earliest geological nightmares: the instability of its steep hillsides. While modern engineering has stabilized many of these slopes, the threat of landslides in areas like Beacon Hill and Capitol Hill remains a critical part of the city's infrastructure and housing safety discourse today.
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