Tide Flat Rescue
A local man is rescued after an alcohol-fueled fall into the Tacoma tide flats leaves him trapped in the muck.
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.
William Tolan fell off the Grant Street bridge early yesterday morning and landed in the mud of the tide flats. He was very intoxicated and could not extricate himself from the slime, so was obliged to keep his uncomfortable position for some hours. After daylight he was discovered and the police notified. The patrol wagon was sent out in charge of Jailer Griffith and Driver Kane and they managed to haul the man ashore. When taken to police headquarters, Tolan was almost unconscious from the exposure. He was given dry clothes and was released as soon as he had recovered.
“He was very drunk and could not extricate himself from the slime, so was obliged to keep his uncomfortable position for some hours.”
The tide flats of 1904 were a raw industrial frontier and a hazardous, muddy barrier between the city and the port. Today, that area is largely filled and developed, but the struggle of maintaining civic safety in the precarious landscape of the Port of Tacoma remains a constant.
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