Seattle Raises Half a Million Dollars for the Lake Washington Canal
Washington's small-town papers marvel as Seattle's wealthy close a $500,000 subscription for the canal — and call it the secret of the city's relentless rise.
Several Washington papers this week celebrated Seattle's success in raising its half-million-dollar subsidy for the Lake Washington canal.
The Waterville Express observed that the Seattle canal subsidy is made up largely of the contributions of the rich, who have thus done that which will ultimately add many thousand fold to their own wealth. Immediate investment of the fund in construction work, it said, will mean financial salvation and good times again to hundreds of people, as well as great and lasting benefits to all the Northwest.
The Olympia Standard, under the heading 'The Secret of Seattle's Strength,' declared that the 'Seattle spirit' still lives, shown by the completion of the subscription of a half-million-dollar subsidy for the Lake Washington canal. 'Seattle people unite as one man for an emergency,' it wrote, 'and that is the secret of their strength and the gratifying success which attends all her efforts.'
The Chehalis Bee added: 'Seattle has more than raised her half-million dollar canal subsidy. This will be good news for all the people of the state.'
“Seattle people unite as one man for an emergency, and that is the secret of their strength.”
The Lake Washington Ship Canal finally opened in 1917, reshaping Seattle's waterfront and economy. The 1895 drive — half a million dollars raised largely by wealthy boosters — shows how the region's big infrastructure has long depended on private capital rallying behind a public vision, a pattern that still shapes how Puget Sound funds transit, bridges, and water projects today.
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