The Path to the Ship Canal
A new law empowers King County to condemn land for the long-awaited government canal connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington.
The way is now clear for the condemnation of right-of-way for the government canal from Puget Sound to Lakes Union and Washington, for which an initial appropriation of $25,000 is available as soon as the right-of-way is secured. Senator Range's bill allowing counties to levy a tax of 1 mill a year for this and similar purposes has been passed by the house, with an emergency clause, and now only awaits the governor's signature to become law. The prospect is that the county commissioners will promptly avail themselves of the powers thus granted them and that the right-of-way will all have been secured and work well under way before the end of the fiscal year. The bill grants counties the power to condemn and appropriate lands, properties, and rights for public works proposed by the state or the United States, and to levy a special tax to fund these acquisitions.
“Every county in this state is hereby... authorized and empowered... to condemn and appropriate... such lands, properties, rights and interests as are hereinafter in this act mentioned.”
The construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, finally completed in 1917, fundamentally reshaped Seattle's geography by lowering the lake level and creating a permanent maritime link. This 1895 legislation highlights the era's aggressive use of eminent domain to facilitate the 'growth machine' that defined the city's early development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.