Seattle's $160,000 Gamble on a Railroad
Citizens paid Mr. Villard's corporations to push a line into the Cedar and Green River coal and timber country—and Walla Walla was warned not to be left behind.
The telegraph reports that Mr. Villard accepted, for the corporations he represents, from the citizens of Seattle the sum of $160,000 as an inducement to build a railroad tapping the rich coal, timber and iron regions in Cedar and Green River valleys. Walla Walla cannot afford to be behind Seattle in enterprise.—Union.
“from the citizens of Seattle the sum of $160,000 as an inducement to build a railroad tapping the rich coal, timber and iron regions in Cedar and Green river valleys.”
Seattle's citizens raising a huge sum to lure a railroad is an early version of the modern civic subsidy sweepstakes. Then as now, public money and civic boosters competed to attract private infrastructure and the growth it promised.
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