Railroad Standoff at the Coal Bunkers
A high-stakes blockade at the Puget Sound waterfront reveals the tense territorial battles between the Great Northern and Northern Pacific lines.
Officials of the Great Northern railway explained that their presence near the Madison street coal bunkers on Tuesday night was not an attack, but a defensive measure against Northern Pacific crews attempting to expand a spur track. The Great Northern placed a train on their track at the proposed crossing point, and the Northern Pacific countered by blocking the switch with their own train. A locomotive remained on the scene with steam up all night, and while tensions were high, no physical damage was done as both sides negotiated for a settlement.
“The Northern Pacific people then placed a train under the bunkers, and extending southward so as to block the switch by which the Great Northern trains cross.”
Waterfront land rights remain one of Seattle's most enduring political and economic battlegrounds. This account of competing corporate maneuvers at the coal bunkers underscores how access to the shoreline has always dictated the city's power dynamics.
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