The Hidden Hand Behind Tacoma's Railroad Expansion
Speculation runs rampant as the Northern Pacific attempts to block a mysterious rival eyeing the Cowlitz Pass and a route into the Tacoma waterfront.
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.
Who owns the Tacoma-Eastern railroad? This question, rather than the question of who is likely to buy the road, is the one that many people would like to have answered. Certain signs have been taken by railroad men to indicate that E. H. Harriman does not need to buy the road in order to carry out his plan of extending the Union Pacific from Portland to Tacoma and Seattle. The Tacoma-Eastern is a remarkably well-built road for a logging and mining operation, featuring the heaviest rails and a standard gauge that suggests it is being prepared for transcontinental traffic. The Northern Pacific has actively blocked the Tacoma-Eastern’s progress toward Cowlitz Pass, fearing the entry of a rival. Meanwhile, substantial land options on the tide-flats and right-of-ways toward Yakima suggest a major play for the Tacoma waterfront, with Commercial Avenue potentially serving as the gateway for this new transit giant.
“The progress of the Tacoma-Eastern toward Cowlitz pass has been blocked and impeded by the Northern Pacific in every way. This is openly avowed to have arisen from fear on the part of the Northern Pacific that some transcontinental road would use the line.”
Railroad expansion and the control of industrial waterfront land defined Tacoma's economic growth in 1904. Today, the debate over how to utilize and control Tacoma's tide-flats and industrial corridors continues to pit private interest against the city's long-term infrastructure goals.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.