The 15,000-Word Plan to Build a Great Harbor on Seattle's Tide Flats

The report of Virgil G. Bogue, consulting engineer to the King County board of tide land appraisers, has been submitted to the board and deals exhaustively with the questions involved in platting the tide lands at the head of the bay, with a view to the best provision for transportation facilities and the use of the water front by railway, rail and steamship. It is accompanied by a map showing in detail how the tide lands should be laid out into docks, slips and railway yards, so that the way may be opened for the construction of railroad terminals, docks and wharves to be used jointly by all roads under the control of a terminal company.

The report, about 15,000 words, is accompanied by suggestions in reference to the organization of a terminal company, and by a letter in which Mr. Bogue says: 'It is not to prepare a plat which would satisfy all conflicting interests. I trust, however, that the plat and the information contained in the report will be of some value as a step toward a proper utilization of the advantages which depend upon suitable terminals and harbor facilities.'

Mr. Bogue opens with a review of the elements which go to make up a great commercial city, chief among which is a navigable waterway, though a people alive to the situation and full of enterprise also count. He cites Venice, Glasgow and New York. He then discusses the harbor improvements of the principal ports of America and Europe and sums up: 'The above statements show that in general the greatest commercial success has resulted where there has been, either in part or in whole, municipal or other public ownership and control of docks and wharves.'

Of Seattle he says: 'The harbor of Seattle has ready access through channels, by way of Puget Sound and the Straits of Fuca, to the Pacific Ocean. The harbor is well sheltered from storms and winds by various headlands and ranges of hills. It is landlocked and with proper wharf facilities can accommodate a vast trade. The ordinary tide is fourteen feet. The southern part of the harbor is barred by the tide flats, which extend in rear of the city. The tide flats have been formed by materials brought down by the Duwamish river, together with the White, Cedar and Green rivers, which head in the Cascade range. They are, including any portion worth of Smith's cove and the portion of the Duwamish river exclusive, substantially 3,000 acres. They are partially traversed by two or three sloughs or creeks and by the channel of the Duwamish river. Their surface, which in six to twelve hours may be nearly high tide, is exposed at low tide. The eastern part of the tide lands slopes rapidly into deep water, sometimes attaining a depth beyond which it is not practical to build piers and wharves. The flats, however, are formed of materials which can be easily and cheaply dredged. They are in this regard exceptionally good situations for the construction, at comparatively small cost, of slips, basins and waterways.'

He recommends that the water front be arranged so as to be free from obstructions; that a tract of land on the tide flats be set aside for a local freight terminal for all the railways, and another tract for a union passenger station; that railroad avenues be kept open from which the railways may reach the wharves; that a terminal company include all the railways which now center at Seattle, with provision for any that may come hereafter; and that the tide lands be platted in large blocks suitable for large plants, but of such size that they cannot be cut up into ordinary city lots should this ever become desirable.

'Seattle has in her tide flats the opportunity which nature has prepared for an ideal harbor,' the report concludes, 'and, whatever may be the outcome of the future, there can be no excuse for doing anything now which would at all interfere with any suitable plan of improvements which may be hereafter adopted.'