A Small Sum, a Large Victory: Washington Gets Behind the Lake Washington Canal
Congress sets aside $25,000 for the canal — a modest figure that Seattle reads as the federal government finally saying yes to a waterway Oregon spent years fighting.
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.
The river and harbor bill, as agreed upon by the conference, has passed the house of representatives and will unquestionably pass the senate today or Monday, becoming a law as soon as it receives the president's signature. It contains an appropriation of $25,000 for continuing work on the Lake Washington canal.
The amount of the appropriation is small compared with the amount of work to be done, but it is of more value to the city of Seattle and the state of Washington than the mere amount of money would imply. It involves a distinct recognition of the canal as a great work to be undertaken by the national government.
It has received this recognition after a long and bitter fight in which all the power of the state of Oregon was arrayed against the project, and in which some of the people of other cities, as well as the Democratic party organization of this state, united with the Oregon influence to prevent the undertaking of this work, which they recognized to be of such great importance to the city of Seattle.
While it is to be regretted that the amount of the appropriation is not larger, this is a small consideration compared with the victory of securing national recognition for the canal. Other appropriations will follow more certainly and with vastly less effort. It is no longer to be doubted that the canal will be built, and built by the national government.
“It involves a distinct recognition of the canal as a great work to be undertaken by the national government.”
Seattleites have been arguing over a Ship Canal cutting from Lake Washington to Puget Sound for well over a century — and the line between a modest federal grant and a transformative public works project has always been the real prize. The 1894 fight shows a familiar pattern: regional rivals (then Oregon, now other metros) maneuvering against Seattle's ambitions, and local boosters treating any recognition at all as a win.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.