Forging a Path Across the Tide-Flats
Tacoma moves to bridge the industrial gap with a new piling-supported road to the tide-flats, despite a stubborn land holdout.
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.
County Surveyor Thornton has completed his preliminary survey and contour map of the proposed road running from the Puyallup bridge across the tide-flats. The road will be about 1.5 miles in length and will be built on piling. The piles used will be driven down 15 feet and the width of the road will be 18 feet. A right of way has not yet been secured across lot 3. This land is held by Charles McXamess, supposedly for the Vanderbilts. When this roadway is completed there will be no complaint about the inaccessibility of the tide-flats for factories because of the lack of a highway.
“When this roadway is completed there will be no complaint about the inaccessibility of the tide-flats for factories.”
This infrastructure project highlights the early 20th-century push to industrialize Tacoma's waterfront by overcoming the 'inaccessibility' of the tide-flats—a geography that defined the city's economic growth. Today, that area remains a critical, and often contested, industrial corridor.
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