A Dangerous Walk Down Jackson Street
An elderly worker suffered a fifteen-foot plunge after falling through a failing street plank on Jackson Street.
An old man named Sam De Merritt met with an accident yesterday in which he almost lost his life. He had been doing carpenter work on Jackson street, near South Third, and yesterday fell through a hole in the street where the planking is being repaired. The fall was fifteen feet, and he struck on his head on a timber, severely cutting his nose and making a great gash in his forehead. He was hauled up to the street and taken to Providence hospital.
“The fall was fifteen feet, and he struck on his head on a timber.”
Early Seattle was literally held together by wooden planks, and accidents caused by failing infrastructure were common in the city's rapidly developing waterfront districts. The story serves as a visceral reminder of the physical dangers inherent in the city's early, often precarious, urban landscape.
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