Runaway Horses Leap into the Bay
A dramatic accident near the waterfront leaves one horse drowned and a wagon destroyed.
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.
An express team belonging to J. L. Kahaley started running away from his barn on Commercial street, near the foot of Charles, yesterday afternoon. The team had scarcely gone a block before they plunged headlong into the bay. One horse was drowned, but the other got loose, ran onto the flats, and was retrieved. There were some stringers across the roadway where the horses jumped, and it is probable that the horse that was drowned broke his neck against one of these, as he seemed to be helpless in the water. The wagon hung on the stringer with the hind wheels resting on the roadway, but the springs were broken.
“An express team... started running away... and had scarcely gone a block before they plunged headlong into the bay.”
The waterfront near the SODO district has long been a place of industrial mishaps. This incident, occurring where Commercial and Charles Streets once defined the shore, highlights the physical dangers of the early Seattle freight economy.
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