The River vs. The Rails: Walla Walla’s Plea for a Seattle Link
In 1877, Eastern Washington leaders warned that relying on the Columbia River was a fatal mistake, urging the federal government to subsidize a railroad connecting their region directly to Seattle.
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.
A VOICE FROM THE OTHER SIDE.
Hitherto the people and press of Walla Walla have turned Columbus to all propositions looking toward united effort in behalf of a narrow gauge railroad from Seattle. The influence of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, which has so long monopolized their trade, is tangibly felt over there like the way far from in the old story; they have bowed too willingly to the wave of the mermaid that bewitched Circe, and been carried away by that Siren Voice which was not true to their own material interests.
The Walla Walla Whig, however, has lately ventured to assert what may safely be asserted as the true opinion of the mass of the people of that section, if opportunity were given for its candid expression, and which will yet prove to be the true sentiment of all that community.
In answer to a charge of apathy in the matter of the opening of the Columbia river, at the expense of the government, the Whig says without qualification: "We are confident a railroad from here to Seattle would benefit not only the capitalists engaged therein, but every farmer and business man throughout Eastern Oregon and Washington Territory."
The leaven of the old already exploded idea that water carriage is more economical than by railroad has not yet altogether worked out of public sentiment. On the strength of it, the O.S.N. Co. may entertain hopes of having the value of their monopoly increased by getting the government to put its hands down into its pocket and launch out money enough to reconstruct the channel of the Columbia for its benefit regardless of cost. At the same time aid in behalf of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad Company, the Territory, to the extent of one dollar in money or one acre of land is not to be thought of.
Yet a railroad is far better for a country than even a naturally open river. Experience has already proven that where a river and a railroad run between the same points the railroad gradually becomes the favorite, and eventually absorbs most of the business. The railroad is the carrier of the coming age. To sink money in tinkering up channels left unfinished by nature, to the prejudice of an equally feasible railroad which would better answer the vital ends, is unreasonable.
If the government means to aid in opening the north-west to a market, the most legitimate demand that can be made upon it is for moderate subsidy toward building a cheap, practical railroad of the narrow gauge, across the Snoqualmie Pass, from the port of Seattle. Nothing else can wring the yoke of monopoly from the neck of our eastern counties and open the great empire of the interior north-west to commerce and settlement.
This 1877 editorial captures the foundational economic struggle that defined Seattle’s rise: the battle between established river monopolies (the Oregon Steam Navigation Company) and the disruptive power of railroads. The argument that "water carriage" was cheaper than rail was a common defense of entrenched interests, much like how modern logistics giants or legacy infrastructure often resist new transit or housing developments. The successful construction of the Northern Pacific and other lines across Snoqualmie Pass didn't just connect towns; it shifted the entire economic gravity of Washington from the Columbia River to Puget Sound, a lesson in how transportation infrastructure dictates regional power.
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