Ambitious Expansion Plans for Tacoma Harbor
Engineer D. R. Ogden presents massive union rail and harbor terminal plans to the state land board in Olympia.
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.
Frank C. Ross and Engineer D. R. Ogden, of Tacoma, appeared before the state land board at Olympia with plans, maps and surveys of extensive proposed harbor improvements. The plans contemplate union facilities for the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and Canadian Pacific on a large scale. The plans show a union depot for freight and a union passenger station, with ample room for the business of a town of a million inhabitants. The lines include the road along the water front and the old Union Pacific survey through the 'school farm.' The wharf line will altogether measure about thirty miles. The railroad terminal grounds will be on the Puyallup channel, near Commencement Bay addition. The waterways and slips will give ample room for the port of Tacoma, even if it becomes the Liverpool of the Pacific ocean, as some of its advocates confidently prophesy.
“The waterways and slips will give ample room for the port of Tacoma, even if it becomes the Liverpool of the Pacific ocean.”
Tacoma’s early dreams of becoming the 'Liverpool of the Pacific' reflect the high-stakes railroad-era speculation that defined early Washington infrastructure, much of which was later consolidated into the complex industrial harbor seen today.
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