The Dangerous Plank Walk of Old Seattle

There are a number of unemployed men about who would willingly go to work, and the contractor would rather be better off than they by employing a double his present force. A little more attention should be paid to the condition of pedestrians, who are now at considerable inconvenience. The condition of the bridge-work on the street in dispute is such as to force the public to traverse this where they have to descend a narrow plank at an angle of about thirty degrees. In fact, it might be said that for a rope-walker, to say nothing of sober men of ordinary power, it would have been a difficult task to come out of this safely. When the narrow plank is walked, the difficulty is not over, for the pedestrian must needs pick his way cautiously over a lot of debris and broken timbers, which have been thrown down over the head of the cut, across the line of progress. Certainly, if it is not in the contractor's power to put a few more planks in order, and put them in position, it would render it a matter to do this is condemnable.