Waterfront Wharf Collapses Into The Bay
Decaying piles succumb to teredos, dumping 50,000 feet of lumber into the Elliott Bay 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.
A portion of the A. Cary Lumber Company's dock on Norman street, near the dry dock, collapsed yesterday afternoon and 50,000 feet of lumber was dumped into the bay. Fortunately no one was on that portion of the dock at the time, although teams and men have frequently been employed there. The first warning was given by a slabman, who noticed that the wharf was sinking. Before Mr. Cary could reach the spot, a section of the wharf 60x100 feet had fallen in. The piles had been thoroughly eaten up by teredos, and the heavy load of lumber was more than they could sustain.
“The piles had been thoroughly eaten up by teredos, and the heavy load of lumber was more than they would sustain.”
The collapse of this industrial wharf due to teredo worms (wood-boring clams) was a common headache for Seattle's early maritime infrastructure. Today, the industrial waterfront remains a site of constant maintenance and environmental challenges, though the risks have shifted from wooden rot to seismic and ecological concerns.
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