Seattle's Tide-Flat Canal Waits on St. Louis Money
An Army engineer says dredges could be at work by March, but only if St. Louis capitalists approve the plan to fill the tide flats and cut the Lake Washington waterway.
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.
Capt. Thomas W. Symons, of the engineer corps, United States Army, arrived in the city from Portland yesterday. Capt. Symons is engineer for the Seattle Lake Washington Waterway Company and is here to meet the St. Louis capitalists, who will arrive here tomorrow. He will be ready to explain the engineering features of the waterways, the filling in of the tide flats and the digging of the canal to the visitors who are to furnish the money with which this work is to be done. He said:
'It will take a month or six weeks to get the dredges from Olympia and Portland here. The work of improving the harbor at Olympia ought to be completed by February 1, and the dredge in use there could then be brought to Seattle and put to work by March 1. The dredge at Portland will have to be boxed up so that it can stand the voyage on the ocean. It might otherwise be wrecked, should the weather be stormy. Of course, the question of beginning the work will depend on the action of the capitalists from St. Louis. They will doubtless be ready to allow the work to proceed if they find, after investigation, that everything is satisfactory. The party will be accompanied by Col. Flad, a member of the Mississippi River Commission. Col. Flad stands very high as an engineer and is a sort of dictator in the profession in the valley of the Mississippi.'
Speaking of Olympia harbor, Capt. Symons said: 'Olympia now has a very good harbor. The old long wharf, which vessels landing at Olympia were compelled to use at low water, has rotted down, but there is no longer any need of it. A channel has been dredged out as far as the Fourth Street bridge in the heart of the city. There is no deposit of silt in parts of the channel which were dredged out two years ago, and therefore the improvement will be permanent. Vessels can now reach the Fourth Street bridge at all stages of the tide.'
“Of course, the question of beginning the work will depend on the action of the capitalists from St. Louis.”
Seattle's 1895 canal scheme was an early version of the city's habit of remaking its waterfront with outside capital and engineering bravado. Today the Duwamish tide flats are an industrial and environmental battleground, and the question of who pays for major infrastructure—and who benefits—still sounds familiar.
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