Surveyors Map a Path for the Lake Washington Ship Canal
A mysterious but well-funded crew begins the long, arduous work of designing a canal to connect the Sound to Lake Washington.
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.
Messrs. Scurry & Snow have a large surveying party on the outlet of Lake Union, and these gentlemen are making a thorough and complete survey of the outlet and also the portage, and will, after the surveys are completed, prepare maps showing just the amount of earth to be moved in constructing a ship canal from Puget Sound into Lake Washington. Just who these gentlemen are operating for we cannot say, but that someone is going to a great expense to have this work done, and done in a proper manner, we do know.
“Just who these gentlemen are operating for we cannot say, but that someone is going to a great expense to have this work done... we do know.”
The dream of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, finally realized in 1917, started with 'mysterious' private surveys like this one. The canal permanently altered the ecology of the region and redefined the city's relationship with its water, proving that infrastructure debates in Seattle are as old as the city itself.
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