A Half-Million-Dollar Gamble to Shave Two Hours Off the Trip to Olympia
A promoter asks Seattle's Chamber of Commerce for a subsidy to build a twelve-mile rail link at Colby and Vaughn, promising fast steamer connections and a boom for the capital route.
F. O. Edrington, president of the Seattle, Vaughn, Olympia Railway & Navigation Company, who arrived in the city last night and is stopping at the Northern, is very sanguine as to the building of the short line from Seattle to Olympia, the run to be made according to his schedule in about one-half the time that it can now possibly be made by rail or water.
The proposition is to build a road from Colby to Vaughn, a distance of a little over twelve miles, so that a passenger for Olympia can go by steamer from Seattle to Colby, then across to Vaughn on the road, and at Vaughn again take a boat direct to Olympia, the whole run to only consume about two hours and forty minutes.
About two weeks ago Mr. Edrington presented his proposition to the Chamber of Commerce, stating all the benefits that would accrue to Seattle by the construction of the road and the establishment of the connecting steamer lines. Mr. Edrington explained that should the road be built and his project carried out, the capitalists who are behind him would spend about half a million dollars in railway equipment and in building boats to run in connection with the road. The company, before spending the money on the construction of the boats, asks that a subsidy of $25,000 be raised with which to grade the road and lay ties along it.
Said Mr. Edrington, in speaking of the matter last night: "I consider that the building of this road will be of the greatest benefit to Seattle, as it will bring directly to the city all the business from the country about Olympia, as well as the great logging country along Shelton and vicinity. By making the road so short and inexpensive, many more people will travel between the two points, and, as can be seen by looking at a map, it brings the two cities closer together by about one-half the distance covered by the roundabout trip, either by land or water. The company proposes to put on two first-class steamers, 175 feet in length, which will be very fast and commodious and fitted up in the latest fashion, both with regard to machinery and office and cabin fittings. We expect to establish a regular run so that there will be no more delay than it takes to step from a boat to train that is waiting, or from a train to a boat. The country will open up by the construction of the road; it is a tributary to Seattle and will develop rapidly when the means for rapid transportation are furnished. If the sum we ask for is raised we will at once commence operation. I expect the work to be in operation within a year. The road between Colby and Vaughn will be at first a steam road, but it will probably be changed to an electric road as soon as the business done justifies it."
“If the sum we ask for is raised we will at once commence operation. I expect the work to be in operation within a year.”
Edrington's pitch is a textbook growth-machine bargain: public money to underwrite private infrastructure in exchange for promised speed and commerce. The Colby–Vaughn shortcut never became the region's main line, but the same subsidy-for-connection logic still drives every ferry terminal and light-rail extension debate on Puget Sound.
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