Post-Railroad Unemployment Looms
As construction on the Great Northern and Monte Cristo railroads nears completion, city leaders fear a massive labor surplus without the Lake Washington canal project.
The story, cleaned up
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While the early completion of the Great Northern and Monte Cristo roads is desired by every one, there is a phase of the question which is attracting attention, and that is what is to become of the army of laborers now engaged in those enterprises. H. C. Henry, of the firm of Shepard, Henry & Co., said yesterday: 'We have over 5,000 men at work this side of the mountains and we pay out nearly half a million of money a month, which finds its way into all channels of trade in this section. There are probably half as many more at work on the other side of the mountains. We have no more work contracted for in this region, and I don't know of any more railroad building to be done. The new dry dock will probably employ 200 or 300 men and the Great Northern tunnel, which will be 13,000 feet long, will employ about 300 men night and day for three years. The sudden cutting off of such a large market for produce and merchandise will make itself felt in all lines of business in the state of Washington, and this is one more reason for the building of the Lake Washington canal. This work would employ a very large force of men.'
“The sudden cutting off of such a large market for produce and merchandise will make itself felt in all lines of business.”
The transition from an 'infrastructure-boom' economy to a post-project reality is a cycle that has haunted the region from the railroad era to the aerospace and tech booms of the 21st century.
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