Twenty-Ton Cable Sinks into Pioneer Place
A massive power-house cable falls through a street-level planking, requiring hours of heavy lifting to recover.
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.
The weight of the cable for the east end of the Madison street line proved too much for the planking Thursday night. The cable, which with the reel weighs twenty tons, was unloaded from the car at the foot of First Avenue and was lowered as far as Pioneer Place with block and tackle. From there it was intended to be hauled on a truck by way of Yesler Avenue, Third Street, and Madison Street to the power-house. When the truck reached the middle of Pioneer Place, where the street had not been filled in below the planking, the latter gave way and the ponderous weight sank into the hole. By several hours' work with jackscrews, it was again raised to the street level and there remains.
“When the track reached the middle of Pioneer Place where the street had not been filled in below the planking, the latter gave way and the ponderous weight sank into the hole.”
Before the regrades and massive paving projects that transformed Seattle, the city relied on precarious wooden planking that often hid voids or mud, creating frequent logistical hazards for the city's expanding transit infrastructure.
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