St. Louis Money Comes to Dig Seattle's South Canal
A telegram to Eugene Semple announced that the Ames brothers and their St. Louis backers were on their way to take charge of the South Canal, as engineers surveyed the tide flats and a dredger headed west.
A special telegram received by Hon. Eugene Semple yesterday announced that George and Edward Ames, St. Louis capitalists, with money to dig the south canal, have left for Seattle and are expected to arrive next Monday afternoon. They will take active charge of the South Canal under the auspices of the Washington Waterway Company. The telegram read: "St. Louis, Mo., May 31.—Semple, 410 Boston block, Seattle: Mr. and Mrs. Ames and Edward Ames left today. H. S. Ames."
"That means," said an officer of the canal company yesterday, "that the details in connection with the canal have been fixed up to the satisfaction of the St. Louis people who are back of the project, and that the work of the canal being built is wiped away."
The company announced yesterday that it had been decided that the first of the dredgers to be used in the work will arrive here from the East the early part of next week and will at once be refitted and placed in first-class working order. At present the dredger has been engaged in government work.
The company thinks it likely that by next week the board of tide land commissioners will decide as to the manner of constructing the canal. The work was examined and approved by Capt. Thomas W. Symons, of the U.S. engineers, and A. J. Davis, for the tide land commissioners. Capt. Symons is now in Montana and will be in the city the latter part of next week.
The work of driving the piles for the bulkhead on Railroad avenue will be resumed next Monday after a cessation of several days, due to the fact that a sufficient quantity and thickness could not be procured. The local engineer of the company had a party of surveyors in the field surveying the tide flats for the purpose of ascertaining the quantity of fill under warrant No. 3. The work of surveying will be done jointly by the state and the canal company, and from data thus obtained the tide land commissioners will be able to ascertain the amount of fill on any particular section and apportion the cost to the capital company for doing the work.
“"That means," said an officer of the canal company, "that the details in connection with the canal have been fixed up to the satisfaction of the St. Louis people who are back of the project."”
The South Canal was the rival route to the north-side ship canal, promoted by Eugene Semple and backed by out-of-state capital. Its backers' arrival shows how Gilded Age Seattle's growth depended on Eastern money and tide-land speculation—a pattern that still shapes debates over who pays for, and profits from, the city's infrastructure.
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