Seattle's Muddy Streets Stall Railroad Equipment in 1877
A local editor chronicles the impossible state of the city's thoroughfares, where wagon axles disappear into the muck.
We noticed, day before yesterday, the truck that was conveying to the depot the steam-paddy of the S. C. & T. Co. for use on the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, mired to the hubs, and requiring excavation step by step in order to permit its progress through the central marts of the city. This and the painful inconveniences and discomforts that are continually experienced during the wet season on account of the sloughy condition of our business streets, forcibly recommend the improvement of these streets in some way to render them adequate to the wear and tear of traffic. The savings in the items of time, labor, and damage to vehicles and horse-flesh, to say nothing of wealth and appearance, would no doubt in time pay the interest on the cost of grading Commercial and Mill streets. The truth is, these thronged streets are becoming worse cut up and rutted every winter with the increase of wear, and unless speedily attended to will become impassable.
“The truth is, these thronged streets are becoming worse cut up and rutted every winter with the increase of wear, and unless speedily attended to will become impassable.”
In 1877, Seattle was literally sinking into its own mud, with business streets becoming 'sloughy' pits that halted the city's industrial ambitions. This struggle to build reliable infrastructure on unstable ground remains a constant, recurring theme in Seattle’s growth from a frontier mill town to a modern metropolis.
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