The Bottleneck of Yesler Way
A dangerous, debris-filled junction at Yesler, Front, and Commercial streets creates a daily traffic nightmare for Seattle's commerce.
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.
Commerce and public convenience, which always supersede individual preferments, require that all that debris be at once removed, so that Yesler avenue may truly be open to travel and traffic. Yesterday morning, a reporter stood for half an hour at the place mentioned, counting twenty double teams a minute as they converged, crowded in, and passed that place. The irregular junction of Yesler Avenue, Front, and Commercial streets is a scene of constant danger and confusion. There is no passageway along Yesler Avenue between North Second and Front. This part of Yesler avenue is impassable for teams, and uncomfortable to footmen. By unnecessary accumulations of refuse matter, the avenue is, at one place, narrowed down to a width of four feet. All the way up the avenue to Second street is one elongated ridge of old piles, refuse, brick, iron, junk, old and useless burnt timbers, waste barrels and ashes.
“All the way up the avenue to Second street is one elongated ridge of old piles, refuse, brick, iron, junk, old and useless burnt timbers, waste barrels and ashes.”
Seattle’s struggle to clear streets of construction debris and competing uses for public right-of-way is a century-old fight. This report echoes modern complaints about the obstruction of sidewalks and lanes by construction staging.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.