New Bridge Across Sullivan Slough
A Seattle bridge-builder secures the contract for a key infrastructure project in the local wetlands.
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.
It affords us much satisfaction to be able to state that the contract for the building of the bridge across Sullivan Slough has finally been let, the successful bidder for the work being Mr. M. Gaffney, an experienced bridge-builder of Seattle, who agrees to build the bridge in a skillful and workmanlike manner, for the sum of $3,000. $1,000 to be paid when the necessary material is on the ground and all of the piles driven, and the balance when the work is completed. The contract specifies that the bridge shall be finished by January 1st, 1884, and that the contractor is bound in the sum of $3,000 for the good and faithful performance of the contract. Mr. Gaffney went to Seattle Friday morning to secure bondsmen, and will return here on Monday, when the contract will be signed by the council and work commenced at once.
“Mr. M. Gaffney, an experienced bridge-builder of Seattle, who agrees to build the bridge in a skillful and workmanlike manner.”
Infrastructure projects have always been the lifeblood of Pacific Northwest development. Sullivan Slough, like many of the region’s original waterways, was eventually reshaped by the massive engineering projects (like the Duwamish River straightening) that defined Seattle's 20th-century urban geography.
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