The Seattle Water-Hose Rail War of 1888
When two rival railroads fought over a contested stretch of waterfront track, the dispute escalated from legal threats to a chaotic brawl involving barricades, hired detectives, and a fire hose.
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.
There has been no litigation yet over the trouble between the Columbia and Puget Sound railroad and the Puget Sound Shore railroad. The matter has been quietly settled by the Puget Sound Shore making a concession to the Columbia and Puget Sound by which the latter is allowed to run its passenger and freight trains over the part of the track where Mr. Milner laid the narrow gauge rail Saturday. The Puget Sound Shore people tried hard to prevent the Columbia and Puget Sound trains from passing over this portion of the track Sunday, first by stretching a rope across it, which was cut, and afterwards by blockading it with an engine and some dirt cars detached from the engine. The intent was to prevent the 2:30 p.m. passenger train from Renton and Franklin from coming in over this rail, which Mr. Milner had succeeded in laying from the depot to the narrow gauge track beyond the Front Street bridge. The fact that the blockade was obstructing the United States mails carried by the Columbia and Puget Sound acted with great weight upon the Puget Sound Shore people; they had the blockade removed and allowed the train to come in.
A real struggle between the two roads occurred in another quarter Sunday forenoon. Supt. Milner of the Columbia and Puget Sound had set a force of men to work laying a track on the trestle work over an old right of way which runs between the two roads from South Seattle to the round house. The Puget Sound Shore road procured a force of men employed through Lure's detective agency, headed by Detective Sullivan and Sheriff Claughton of Lewis County. The men proceeded to the spot and put up a barricade about fifteen feet distant from where Milner's men had ceased work. The Columbia and Puget Sound force battered down the barricade and attempted to place bents on the timbers to connect with the new track. The force of the Puget Sound Shore promptly undid everything which the Columbia and Puget Sound workmen did, throwing timbers off as fast as they were placed on. The idea of using a regulation one-inch stream hose suggested itself to the Columbia and Puget Sound force, and they turned on a stream to drive away or drown out the Shore workmen and detectives. After a battle of water and cant hooks and pike poles, lasting about ten minutes, no one was hurt. Sheriff Cochrane, who was in the melee, told the men to cease, one of the Puget Sound Shore men having cut the hose. The sheriff ordered everyone away except six men who were sworn in as deputies to guard the property.
“The idea of using a regulation one-inch stream hose suggested itself to the Columbia and Puget Sound force, and they turned on a stream to drive away or drown out the Shore workmen and detectives.”
This 1888 rail conflict over Seattle’s industrial waterfront highlights the brutal, high-stakes nature of early city-building, where property lines were settled by hired detectives and fire hoses rather than courts. It reflects the same aggressive competition for limited urban space that defines modern battles over Seattle's industrial zoning and waterfront development today.
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