How Tacoma Beat Seattle for the Railroad—and Who Paid for It

When the officials of the Northern Pacific railroad were casting about for a Western terminus to the great system it was generally supposed that they would go to Seattle, a city that had had an existence for many years, that was magnificently located on Puget Sound, with harbor advantages unexcelled anywhere along the Pacific coast. Liberal terms were offered these officials by the Seattle owners of terminal facilities, and had the officers been loyal to the road they represented the terms would have been accepted. But the Seattle people were not willing to turn their town over in fee to the small coterie of Northern Pacific officers who did not ask the advantages for the road, but for themselves, and so all negotiations were abruptly broken off, and the next that Seattle heard of a western terminus was when it was announced that a new town was to be constructed on a wooded bluff overhanging the Sound, about thirty miles south of Seattle, to be called Tacoma and to constitute the western end of the great Northern Pacific system. The shipping facilities which this site offered were of the most inferior quality, since approaches to the wharf were down long and steep inclines and the room for wharves was most meagre. Still the site was selected. Why? Because the officials could buy it for a song, have the Northern Pacific foot all the bills incurred in making improvements, such as building hotels, opera houses, street railroads, with an endless array of et ceteras, and since such improvements would make it possible for the small coterie of officers to unload corner lots and in lots at fabulous prices, and that is precisely what the coterie did. They played a sure-thing game and they played it for years, and now the stockholders who have been fleeced propose to have a turn. There may not be much left for them, but what there is they want to save.