Industrial Peril on the Waterfront
A railroad switchman is critically injured while coupling cars on the dangerous, unlit Seattle waterfront.
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.
John McDonald, a switchman for the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad, had his left leg severed last night on Railroad Avenue at the coal bunkers near the foot of Madison Street. Known to his peers only as 'Fussy,' McDonald was coupling moving cars in the dark when his foot caught and he was pinned by the train. The scene was marked by further chaos when C. F. Lawrence, the night clerk who rushed to help, fell through a hole in the unplanked wharf into the water below. The incident highlights the hazardous and dilapidated state of Railroad Avenue, where the lack of lights and proper decking makes such industrial accidents a constant danger for the city's workers.
“The condition of Railroad avenue at this point is such that it is a great wonder more accidents do not occur.”
The waterfront of the 1890s was a lethal industrial machine, and the struggle to make that space safe for laborers is a precursor to modern workplace safety regulations. The dangerous, 'unplanked' state of the old Railroad Avenue serves as a stark reminder of how rapidly Seattle's civic infrastructure had to adapt to accommodate early, violent industrial growth.
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