The Perils of the Seneca Street Crossing
In 1877, Seattleites were forced to perform 'acrobatic feats' to traverse a dangerous gully, highlighting the city's struggle to keep pace with rapid infrastructure demands.
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.
Work on the Front Street bridge has been resumed again, and we are informed by the contractor, it will be hurried through to completion as fast as possible, as the property holders are anxious to have it finished. The crossing at Seneca Street is most wretched. Those who have occasion to cross there, and they are not a few, including many ladies, are obliged to pick their way across a deep gully, over a lot of wretched pieces of broken plank, which have been thrown down there as an apology for a cross-walk. Then, as if to tax their patience and skill to the utmost, they are obliged to perform something of an acrobatic feat by walking an arrow plank about twenty-five feet in length, set at an angle of about thirty-five degrees. There is no earthly reason why this should remain so any longer. The fact is, a crossing ought to be laid there immediately by the city. The contractor on the grade informs us that this can be done now as well as at any time, he having finished work at the end of the intersection of those streets. We hope another week passes to see a fine new crossing laid at this place, which is now absolutely dangerous and should receive immediate attention.
“They are obliged to perform something of an acrobatic feat by walking an arrow plank about twenty-five feet in length, set at an angle of about thirty-five degrees.”
A century and a half later, Seattle continues to grapple with the tension between rapid urban development and the basic, often delayed, infrastructure needed to keep citizens safe. The 'wretched' Seneca Street crossing serves as a reminder that the city's growing pains—specifically the friction between civic improvement and private construction—are as old as the city itself.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.